Blooming
by mayeevee
Summary: She was seen as weak and incompetent by her Team but that will come to an end. She will show them how strong she truly was. No longer will she stand back and let them protect her, with the help of her two new important people she will become stronger than she ever was. And she will finally Bloom to the person she was meant to be.
1. Chapter 1 No more!

**Mevy:** Hello there, Mevy here with a new story for Naruto

 **Sakura:** Really? You already have a Naruto story, why make another one?

 **Mevy:** Hehe, well you see my OTP for Sasusaku has, uhm, sailed off and now I have a major OTP for Itasaku and couldn't help but write this story

 **Sakura:** So you're giving up on the other story?

 **Mevy:** Nope, but I am taking a break from it for a while

 **Itachi:** Hn

 **Mevy:** (Hearts in her eyes) I love Ita-kun way more than Sasu-chan now!

 **Sasuke:** Hn (Glares)

 **Shikamaru: ** Troublesome women

 **Mevy:** Oh shut up troublesome man

 **Shisui:** Lets just start the story

 **Mevy:** Good idea, Panda-kun disclaimer please

 **Gaara:** (Glares) Stop calling me panda! (sigh)

 **Mevy:** Do the disclaimer and I'll give you a cookie XP

 **Gaara:** (Quickly turns to the viewers) Mevy does not own Naruto (Turns to Mevy) Cookie. Now!

 **Mevy: ** (Gives him cookie) Enjoy!

* * *

 _The pain of a never-ending cycle of suffering_

 _hidden behind cracked smiles and_

 _a broken voice._

 _Oh shriveled blossom,_

 _who has hurt you,_

 _for your color is gone,_

 _and the flame of your soul_

 _is no more._

 _Rise fair blossom,_

 _your path is far from over,_

 _be watered by the elixir of life,_

 _and with resilience,_

 _ **Bloom** like no other. _

* * *

Under Tsunade's tutelage, it would be a lie to say that Sakura Haruno had not grown as a Shinobi. After becoming the Godaime's apprentice, Sakura had stopped putting forth her time in vanity, instead using that time in further studying medical ninjutus and training. While it was true that she still held romantic admiration for a certain Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura no longer held the obsession she had for him when she was younger.

Gone was the young girl who cried in the face of mean bullies and mocking words. Sakura was not the crybaby of her youth, Tsunade had made sure to drill into her disciple the need to keep such acts to herself. That is not to say though, that Tsunade prohibited the young genin from the emotional release, she did not by any means want some Uchiha-like emotionally crippled shinobi as her disciple. Once Sakura had become her apprentice, Tsunade had taught her that when one needs to cry, they must do so in the confinements of their own home, away from criticizing eyes and gossiping mouths.

So when said Sakura came running to her office, crying her eyes out while sobbing some unintelligible words, it would be an understatement to say that Tsunade was surprised. The Godaime was quite shell-shocked, and a tad disappointed, to say the least. What possibly could have happened to her student to cause her to lose control to this extent? "Sakura, what has gotten into you?" The Godaime asked, still shocked by her student's breakdown.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm done looking at their goddamn backs. Why am I so weak?!" Sakura practically wailed out. She then did something that shocked ten years out of Tsunade's life, she threw herself at the current Hokage and started sobbing whilst her head was buried in Tsunade's plump bosom.

Making sense of the situation, the fifth Hokage signaled the Anbu positioned in the room to leave and give her privacy with her currently distressed student.

The Anbu, understanding the signal, flickered out of the room and into the hall, leaving the Hokage and her disciple alone. Tsunade gently got a hold of Sakura's face by holding her cheeks with both hands. Shifting Sakura's head to make her look up at her, the fifth Hokage gave Sakura a sympathetic look.

"What did they do this time?" Tsunade asked the saddened kunoichi gently.

"I'm no use to them!" Sakura claimed, eyes closed as she tried to get a hold of herself with no avail. "I'm not even sure why I'm part of their team, all I do is stay in the side lines and watch as they do all the work. On the occasions I do come out and fight they see if fit to protect me and don't even let me do a goddamn thing. When we train they hold back, when we go to missions they protect me as if I was the client, and when we go out to team hangouts they act as if I were invisible!"

Tsunade sighed, she had always known that the time would come when the young Genin will finally get aggravated by her teamates treatment. Many konoichi sadly had to go through this, especially ones from civilian backgrounds, such was Sakura's case. While it might be true that Sakura wasn't the strongest konoichi out there though, that did not give her teamates reason to treat her like a procelain doll, such actions would ultimately end in the pinkette's demise in the face of a deadly force without her teamates there to 'protect her'.

Furthermore, while it was true that Sakura was not the weak girl she once was, she was still not strong enough to face her demons without breaking. Sakura, while Tsunade hated to accept the fact, was just still not ready to face the world. She was strong, that fact was undeniable, but she was still just too damn dependent for her own good.

Glaring heatedly at her thoughts, Tsunade did something that made Sakura's sobs stop abruptly.

She roughly grabbed Sakura's face and slapped her. Hard.

Sakura's face turned to the side from the force as she looked back at Tsunade. She put a hand on her throbbing cheek, her eyes widened and mouth slightly open in shock. Tsunade had never slapped Sakura, sure she punched and kicked when training, but never laid a hand on her for disciplinary means outside of training.

"NO student of mine will cry just because of something as pathetic as that!" Tsunade growled at Sakura, an icy glare in her face. Tsunade had always hated when Sakura would cry over the most petty of things, it was unfit for a shinobi female or not. Memories of a time long past, of tears falling from brown eyes as the world seemed to crumble around her bombarded Tsunade's mind as she gritted her teeth. No, she will not allow Sakura to break in the face of despair.

She hated how much Sakura looked at others for acceptance, how she was still not strong enough to stand without anyone's help. But most of all she hated how much the girl's suffering reminded her of her own many years back. She hated the thought of her becoming a lifeless walking corpse just as she had been, she hated the thought of those bright jade eyes losing the fire that she had grown so accustomed to see from her passionate disciple.

"You can either choose to keep crying and be the weak, pathetic Kunoichi that they say you are or you could go out there, train until you're close to death, and prove those brats wrong!" Tsunade reprimanded, her voice full of demand and confidence, it made Sakura stand a bit straighter.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Sakura felt shame fill her as she reprimanded herself for her breakdown. This was not the person Tsunade had agreed to train, she was acting like the very embodiment of the girl her team saw her as. Such thoughts made her dulling jade eyes sharpen as she narrowed them slightly. No, she was not going to give them the satisfaction of truly dominating her and molding her into a weak, helpless medic-nin who always stays in the sidelines, knowing nothing about fighting. She will not fall, not now, not ever.

"I-I'm sorry Shishou, you're right I need to stop dwelling in self pity and start doing something about it." Sakura's eyes shinned with determination even with the hiccups making their way out of her mouth. She looked oh so very fragile, eyes bloodshot and cheeks red, tear trails visible, yet Tsunade knew Sakura was anything but.

It was true that the pinkette was still far too dependent and held little to no self-confidence, but she had the potential to become something great. That potential was the thing that caused Tsunade to accept her as an apprentice, and that potential gleamed from inside Sakura's reawakened flame in her green orbs.

"That's the spirit! Now go out there and get into those training fields, its only 7 pm I'm sure you can have a decent training session in that time."

"Hai! But Shisui, don't I need an instructor to be able to go into the fields?" It was well-known knowledge that genin required supervision by their jonin instructor or any other high ranking shinobi in order to go into the training fields. This was in order to keep freshly-promoted genin from causing themselves or others around them harm from a training accident. The truth of the matter though, was that this was mostly directed towards genin of civilian background, who had the highest casualties from training accidents before the rule was placed due to not knowing any other shinobi other than their instructors to supervise their training. Such was Sakura's case, who only had Kakashi or Tsunade to supervise her. One though, was too busy with a certain black-haired prodigy or his _important_ hobby to bother supervising her on individual training, Tsunade on the other hand was far too busy with duties as Hokage to fully train Sakura.

Tsunade smiled sadly at her pinkette student, thinking something along the same lines as her. There was just not enough time in the day for her to fully give Sakura the training she needed and deserved. Shizune helped quite a bit in training the young genin in the art of healing, but Tsunade needed her assistant, and while she hated having to put Sakura's training aside; the cruel fact was that Hokage duties always had to come first. No matter how much she loved her surrogate daughter, she could not put her before the thousands of civilians and shinobi alike who needed her full commitment. So, if this was something that she could do to give the young girl the chance to fully expand her limits, then dammit she was going to give it to her.

"Now Sakura, what point is there to have me, the Hokage, as a Master if you don't get privileges from it." Tsunade said jokingly. Sakura gave a small giggle as she gazed at her teacher lovingly.

She should have known that her Shishou would have a solution for this. The older blonde always seemed to have the answers for everything. Sakura sighed as she looked down at the floor. She truly did not deserve such a caring and loving teacher, yet she would be lying to herself if she said she was not happy that Tsunade accepted her as her own. Eyes blazing with determination, Sakura steeled her resolve. She was oging to train hard, she was going to transcend her limits, and most of all, she will prove to the world that Tsunade had not made a mistake in accepting her as an apprentice. She will prove to the world that she was strong, that was her new nindo, her ninja way.

Sakura, too deep in her inner resolve to pay any mind to her teacher, was startled out of her inner monologue by Tsunade suddenly grabbing her had with her own chakra-covered one. She felt a burning sensation on her palm as tears formed on her eyes, yet she pushed them back stubbornly. All hell will freeze over before she cried any more today.

The sensation left after a few seconds as Sakura looked down at her palm to see a mark. It was a criss-cross mark with a circle in the middle, kanji that she could only slightly make sense of formed a circle around the crisscross symbol; some of them said something like 'soul-bond' and 'signal' but she couldn't quite make sense of the intricate but small kanji. She could feel Tsunade's chakra embedded in the mark as she flexed her hand ever so slightly.

"There, just show that mark to the Anbu stationed in the gate and sign in on the sign in sheet. This will let you in in the advance training fields used mostly only by the Chunin, Jonin and Anbu. This mark is usually reserved certain individuals far ahead of their peers in need of training accommodations, but I don't see any harm in having my student take full advantage of this." Tsunade told Sakura with a wink, eyes glittering with mischievousness.

"Now I am going to go through a lot of trouble, especially from the council, you know how those annoying old hags can be, complaining is all they know how to do. They will go about the misuse of authority and such, really those old farts only want to make my life complicated." Tsunade sighed with fake exasperation, being a little melodramatic. Sakura rolled her eyes good naturely, knowing first hand how the council could be.

"Anyways because of my troubles I expect to see you in those sign in sheets at least 5 days a week and also one hour by the least. You are only allowed not to show if you are critically injured, are on a mission, or other critical circumstances, but you must send a letter explaining why you did not show and it better be good you hear. Now that does not give you an excuse to go overboard and put your health at risk like you tend to do. If that happens I'm not above taking the seal off and putting you in mandatory confinement until further notice."

Sakura gulped before nodding rapidly, the woman was frightening when her orders were not followed. Sakura could still feel the pain from the beating she had received during training the one and only time she had been late. That, and she still had nightmares that time Tsunade had put her into medical confinedment when she had overexerted herself to the point she had been in critical condition, the woman had never been as livid as she was in that instance. Sakura was careful about her training ever sense.

Her Shishou was one who desired discipline and obedience when it was due. She wanted strong and professional disciples who would not ruin her image in the shinobi world (more than it was already, but that was a fact that Sakura would rather not point out, else she might find herself missing a limb). Sakura learned early on that Tsunade expected her to be ot only responsible in her training, but her health as well. What was the use of a strong disciple if they died early from exhaustion where Tsunade's words, and Sakura could not say that she found any fault in her shishou's reasoning.

Sakura bowed waist deep at Tsunade out of both good-bye and thankfulness.

"Thank you Tsunade-shishou, I will not disappoint you. I will take full advantage to the opportunity you have given me."

"Just go now, oh and I would advise that you learned what chakra type you are by using the Chakra paper," Tsunade said before going back to her dreaded paperwork.

"Thank you Tsunade, I'll make sure to help you with the Hospital paperwork tomorrow."

The look Tsunade gave her was as if she was the saving grace sent to her by the heavens. "I'll hold you to that," Tsunade said before going back into her paperwork, looking slightly more giddy, anyone would be if someone volunteered to take a foot worthy of paperwork for them.

It was well known that all Kages hated paperwork, and so Sakura and Shizune had helped Tsunade with it in many occasions. Sakura had never been more thankful that her mother had made her spend so much time studying in the past, or the fact that she was a bookworm at heart.

Sakura smiled before going outside. In the hallway Sakura felt a slight breeze as the Anbu went back inside the office, they must have purposely made their presence known, as was customary show of respect to those of importance visiting the Hokage. Sakura had been quite surprised at the fact the first time she had felt them, but Shizune had explained to her that as the Godaime's apprentice, the Anbu needed to do so if they ever were made to leave the office for any reason, as a way to show that both her and Tsunade had been in privacy. She hated to admit it, but such a fact always made a small amount of pride form inside her chest.

Making her way outside the Hokage tower, Sakura headed to the training grounds, giddy to start her first solitary training session.

* * *

After stopping at the store Sakura always went to get any Ninja necessities, she had finally made it to where the training grounds were located at. She has been here a lot with her team, but this was the first time she came alone.

Going up to the guard, she studied him slightly. He was a shonobi she had never seen before, he wore the custumery chunin vest with messy black hair and grey colored eyes. Said eyes narrowed at seing her form, most likely already deducing that she was a Genin. Yet, before she could say anything, Sakura quickly lifted her palm, turning his attention to the seal on it. The Chunin's eyes widened slightly at the symbol, but he quickly regained his composure as he brought a chakra covered finger and touched the seal lightly. Seeming to be satisfied at something Sakura was unsure of, he mersely gave her the sign-in clipboard that was hanging on the fenced wall, afterwards he leaned back against the wall, though he could still feel his calculating gaze on her from under his bangs.

Trying to ignore his gaze, Sakura quickly wrote down her name along with her ninja ID number, while Genin Teams did not have to do this because their sensei would usually notify the training guards in the training grounds about when they would meet individual ninjas had to sign in so that the Hokage could keep track of who went into the training grounds. Sakura was not certain why this was mandatory but she just brushed it off as something important that she did not need to know.

After finishing with that Sakura gave the clipboard back to the guard, who merely nodded at her and let her pass through the fenced door. She quickly walked through the door and inside the training grounds, happy to be inside and away from the Chunin's inquisitive eyes. Automatically she made her way to the training grounds she saw had the most trees, going inside Sakura saw a nice clearing with trees surrounding it. Right away Sakura felt at ease surrounded by the trees and plants around her. Shhe felt at home.

That was something Sakura didn't quite understand about herself, she always loved being surrounded by plantation and especially loved being inside forests and places that were just greatly surrounded by nature. It was a quirk that she held ever since she was a kid, and one that had gotten her into quite a bit of trouble as a child, always getting lost in the forest next to the playground when she ran from mean bullies that made fun of her forehead. She would find consolation in the dense trees, in doing so she always gave her parents a hard time when she didn't get home in time. They always needing to go out looking for her when she was late in getting home, only to find her cuddled against the roots of a tree, fast asleep and oblivious to the world around her. Yet, for a reason unknown to her, they never prohibited her from going outside, no matter how many times she became lost in the forest, needing them to come for her every time.

Shaking away past memories, Sakura took out her newly bought Chakra paper. Sending a bit of chakra into the sheet, Sakura watched in amazement as the paper crumbled, turning into dirt. If she was correct that meant her main Chakra nature was earth. Funny, that made the training ground she chose an almost perfect place to train.

Sakura got into a meditating position and closed her eyes. Controlling her breathing, she listened intently to her surroundings. She read in a scroll that this would help with Chakra detecting and help her be more aware of her surrounding. If done enough, Sakura would be able to unconsciously detect any unnatural movement in her surroundings, making finding enemy ninja easier.

Suddenly, there was a shift as Sakura heard a tree branch above her rustled ever so slightly. Opening her eyes, Sakura barely managed to move out of the way before a kunai struck the same exact place she had been sitting only a few moments ago.

Getting into a fighting position, Sakura threw a shuriken automatically to the place that the Kunai had come from. The person who was in the branch seemed to have disappeared into thin air as Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"Whoever you are come out now! I know you are there and I am not afraid to bring you out." Sakura said, trying to keep her voice from shaking, she could not show just how nervous she really was. This could be a shinobi that had infiltrated Kanoha. The question was though, why he was in the training grounds, and why he was attacking her?

"Try it if you can." A mocking, deep voice traveled throughout the training ground. Sakura could not locate from where it came from, the voice echoing around with seemingly no source. Getting frustrated, chakra covered her fists in a thin layer. Sakura knew this was reckless seeing as that she did not know how to properly use chakra enhanced strength, but all sanity left her mind at the taunt. Not only that, but the male she was facing against might truly be an enemy shinobi, one with considerable power if he was able to infiltrate Konoha without anyone noticing.

"Hn, the Hokage's apprentice." The figure, who Sakura guessed was a man because of his deep voice, said in an emotionless voice.

"Yes, and who are you?" Sakura demanded more than asked, speaking rudely due to anger. She just knew that her Anger management would greatly suffer after being with Tsunade for so long. Here she was, talking bravo to a potentially deadly enemy. Kami, she must have no sanity left.

The figure covered by the tree's shadow jumped in the clearing, presenting himself to Sakura. She gasped as her eyes became as big as dinner plates.

"Itachi Uchiha-sama, I am so sorry" Oh great, she was really starting to regret all those rude comments now. This was ITACHI-FRICKEN-UCHIHA! You did not disrespect the Uchiha heir, especially a renown prodigy like Itachi.

"Hn." Was all that said Uchiha heir said, looking slightly amused under his seemingly emotionless eyes.

"Um, what brings you here Uchiha-san?" Sakura asked politely, trying not to be too rude to the Anbu captain again. Dammit of all people to run into in the training grounds alone, it just had to be _this man._ She cursed the heavens for her luck. Sakura could hear Inner laughing at her expense as she stood there, twitchy and uncomfortable before Itachi.

"Training." Itachi responded, not being helpful at all. Damn all Uchihas and their monosyllable way of speech.

"Ah" Dammit now she was doing it! She seriously wanted nothing more than to high tail it out of here, she was not good under all this pressure in being in the presence of a world reknown prodigy. Especially when said prodigy could kill her in under a second flat.

"Where is your instructor?" Itachi asked her, he didn't looked like he would leave any time soon and that made Sakura even more nervous. Why the hell would he care what she was doing or where said teacher was, not that she had any though.

"Um, I-I'm here alone." Sakura hoped that was all and he would go his merry way. Seriously, why did he even care?! As far as Sakura knew they never even properly met each other before this, so what was his reason for barging into her training and almost killing her! Seriously if she wasn't so afraid of the taller male, she would have already demanded an explination for his actions and, if only she was bold enough, and apology.

Yet all she truly do is stand there, looking like a deer caught in headlights, as Itachi raised an eyebrow in question. After many years of trying to decipher the younger brother's body gestures due to her obsession for him, Sakura quickly understood what the older Uchiha was silently asking.

"Tsunade-shishou gave me special permission to train alone." To further prove the point, Sakura raised her hand palm out. Upon seeing the mark there, Itachi's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the familiar seal, only for him to revert back to his emotionless state. He nodded slightly with understanding.

"Ah" Itachi responded, once more using 'Uchiha language' once more.

"Y-Yes…."Sakura trailed off. She did not know what she was suppose to say to the male before her. Sasuke had talked about him in more than one occasion. Every time he talked about him, he made Itachi seem like the god of shinobi. That, though, made her situation all the more dire. How was she suppose to act around a seemingly perfect and high ranking shinobi?

While Sakura had visited the Uchiha compound in more than one occasion, she had never met the Uchiha heir. Every time she went to visit, said Uchiha would always be out and so she never really got to meet him.

The only reason she knew of him was because of Sasuke and his out of character rambling. That and a few pictures in the wall of the Uchiha main house.

Yet here they were, both staring at each other. The elder Uchiha as impassive as ever, while on the other hand Sakura was close to burying herself alive, twitchy and nervous under his emotionless gaze.

"Spread out your chakra." Itachi suddenly said out of nowhere. Sakura looked confused at him, _**'What the fu-'**_

"What?" Sakura questioned, interrupting her Inner as said inner voice gawked at the male before them. ' _You done laughing already?'_ Her inner said nothing, instead she continued to look at the male before them with calculating eyes. Seems like her inner mind couldn't make sense of the older male's intentions either.

"You're trying to expand your senses, to further sharpen them use your chakra to feel your surroundings."

Itachi gave off a demanding aurora, not unlike that of her shishou. Sakura felt the need to do just as he had said, already used to following the orders of such an aurora.

Sakura nodded her head, he looked at her expectantly and she suddenly got the feeling he wanted her to do it now. As in, in front of him.

Sakura quickly got into a meditating position and closed her eyes. Controlling her breathing she started to become more conscious of her surrounding. She could hear the rustles of the leaves as wind passed through the trees. Following Itachi's suggestion Sakura spread out her chakra.

The results practically blew Sakura out of this world and to the next. Her chakra, almost as if it already knew what to do, quickly spread from inside of her and into the plantation around her. The grass was quickly covered by her chakra as she felt the small, almost indecipherable, chakra signals from the small plantation. She felt her chakra brush against the trees around her as well. The chakra then traveling from the grass and brushed against the Uchiha before her slightly. She stifled a gasp as she felt his almost unlimited supply of chakra, seeming to be tightly held in his person. Sakura felt him tense slightly from the feel of her chakra, she quickly pulled her chakra away from him and let it brush against the trees around her. Their chakra was quite large, yet held a different feeling than that of Itachi's own.

The difference in chakra signatures between the trees and the Uchiha fascinated Sakura. She could only sense the chakra of the plants round 10 feet away from her, yet for her it was enough to awe her at the differences between the signatures of the nature around her. She felt at peace, almost as if the chakra of the plantation comforted her. She could sense the chakra of the few 12 trees that were close to her and of Itachi who was barely 5 feet away from her.

Sakura focused even more on the tree located around 6 feet away from her. She felt as the chakra in the tree moved through it, helping bring in the nutrients it needed to survive. The way the tree used chakra was so different than the way humans used it yet it was similar in so many ways that it intrigued Sakura.

So caught up with the tree and its chakra, Sakura didn't notice Itachi move from his position until he was right in back from her.

"You have quite the chakra control." Itachi slightly praised making Sakura well up with pride for the complement.

Suddenly Itachi disappeared, not being able to sense his presence anymore Sakura guessed that he had left her to her own devices.

"Thank you." Sakura said out loud to her now empty surrwondings.

* * *

 **Mevy:** Okay I hope you like the first chappie

 **Naruto:** Why did you make me and Teme come off as jerks in this fic

 **Mevy: ** Because you and Sasuke practically ignore Saku-chan throughout the whole show

 **Sasuke:** (scoff) She was annoying and weak

 **Mevy:** Okay, maybe in some occasions, that's why there are so many fandoms where she is stronger

 **Sakura: ** You guys are mean!

 **Shisui:** There there cupcake, come here and let Shi-kun comfort you

 **Itachi:** (Hits Shisui over the head) Idiot

 **Mevy:** Oh the wonders of jealousy

 **Itachi:** (Glare)

 **Mevy:** Anyways~ Hope you liked this new story and till next time CX


	2. Chapter 2 Training and falling

**I'M SO SORRY FOR PUTTING UP THE WRONG CHAPTER! PLEASE FORGIVE ME T.T!**

 **Mevy** : Hello people!

 **Sakura** : What the hell happened to you, I thought you were dead!

 **Sasuke** : Hn, more like hoped

 **Mevy** : Aw Sasu-chan~ Are you still sulking about me saying I liked Ita-kun better than you~

 **Sasuke** : Hn

 **Mevy** : Okay well sorry this chapter took so long to be updated, school has started and I'm scraping as much time together as fast as I can. This is a somewhat late Happy B-day present to myself ^^, so I hope you like it

 **Itachi** : Hn, Mevy does not own Naruto

 **Mevy** : Now to answer reviews before starting XD

* * *

 **Foxychan97** : Thank you for your review, sorry if i updated late and thank you for saying this story has potential, I hope your right ^.^ Hope you enjoy this new chapter XD

 **nedrag94** : Thank you for your review, I am really happy you enjoy the story so far and I hope you like the new chapter ^^

 **CherryBlossoms016** : I am so happy that you like the story so far ^^, its awesome that you started liking Itasaku, there are way too few of us out there T.T we need more peeps XP Thank you for your reviews and hope you like this new chapter CX

 **HisSecretLover18** : Hehe you'll have to wait and see, but lets just say that Itachi will have a big part in Sakura's life XP, Thank you for your review and I hope you liek this new chapter XD

 **Xx Onyx Pearl xX:** Thank you so much for your compliment ^^, i'm glad you like the story so far and I hope you like this new chapter CX

* * *

 _Time has passed us by,_

 _and now I can finally move forward._

 _Yet you still grasp me_

 _not wanting me to leave._

 _Do you see me now?_

 _Do you finally care?_

 _Do you honestly believe you're not too late?_

 _I steady myself_

 _working continuously without stop._

 _And even as I stumble and fall,_

 _I will always stand up once more._

* * *

It had been four weeks after the encounter with a certain Uchiha Itachi. In that time period Sakura had never even caught sight of said infamous as much as famous Uchiha. She was currently working on sharpening her accuracy and if she was honest with herself, she truly sucked at it.

In the beginning of the training she put four targets in the trees in front of her. After sending the kunais at the direction three managed to hit the second white ring while the fourth only managed to hit the first black ring.

It was a wonder how she managed to survive the ninja world this long. She had been so distraught she considered herself a hopeless case. Her inner beat that out of her, none too gently might she add.

After 2 weeks of practice she managed to hit two kunais in the first black ring, one in the second black ring and the fourth in the first blue ring. By the fifth week she managed to hit the first red ring. In the end of the 7th week she could hit bulls-eye with all four kunais. Practice really made perfect.

' **I told you, but noooo little miss** _ **'give-up-before-trying'**_ **had to deny any hope of becoming better'** Sakura's ever helpful inner butted in.

' _How many times do I have to say you were right before you let the matter drop'_ Sakura practically whined to her bossy inner voice.

Before Inner could say anything back to her Sakura let go of all four kunais at the same time. She had been working on this for the past week, letting go of kunais and shuriken at the same time. Currently she could hit the first red ring with all four.

' **Still a long way to go it seems'** Inner said the obvious

' _We'll get it, we just need to train harder'_ With that thought Sakura kept training. Soon the sun started going down making Sakura's shadow longer and longer. Sweat covered Sakura's body as she kept on and on, throwing the weapons. Only moving to retreat the fallen weapons when she ran out before doing it again.

She took short breaks here and there before continuing her seeming never ending routine. She continued until the sun finally fell from the horizon and the ever beautiful moon shined in the night sky. Feeling utterly tired with numb arms Sakura decided to call it a day. She had managed to have 2 kunais hit the 2nd red ring while the other 2 hit the first yellow ring.

' _There is always tomorrow'_ She thought to herself as she headed home. Upon arriving at her small apartment Sakura smiled to herself. "I'm home" She told the to the picture located at a small desk a few feet away from the door.

In the picture it showed Sakura's mother, a brunette woman around her late 20's with shining blue eyes. Next to her mother was a man, he looked around his early 30's, he had messy blonde hair with soft, kind brown eyes.

Sakura was in the middle of them, being held by both of them, she looked around 1 year old with short, chin length pastel pink hair and big bright emerald eyes.

' _Makes you wonder where I get my genes from'_ Sakura joked lightly, smiling sadly at the family photo.

' _ **Sakura...'**_ Inner's sad tone made Sakura shake her head lightly.

' _I know Inner, I know'_ Sakura gave a sad sigh before going to the bathroom to take a long, warm shower. She needed to get all the sweat and grime off of her before going to bed only to wake up and train again.

* * *

One month later (July)

Training, that's what Sakura's schedule has looked like this past month. She rarely did anything else other than train anymore (other than hospital duty of course, along with team training here and there). It has become a sort of obsession the past weeks.

The feeling of accomplishment as she did something that she could not do in the beginning. How her body got accustomed to her new lifestyle day by day. It was an accelerating feeling and it has become a sort of drug Sakura wanted to keep taking. The fact that she was surrounded by green didn't help things, seeing as that Sakura felt more at ease there than anywhere else.

Nobody really noticed her improvements. Her team did not question her better aim or her slightly larger chakra storage because of her exercises in meditating. It would seemed that Itachi's suggestion about spreading her chakra made it so that her reserves got bigger, though it took meditation every day to get those results.

The only downside was that with her chakra outside her body her chakra coils will produce new chakra if she left the chakra out of her body too long. It seemed to be a type of natural reaction seeing as that the body creates new chakra when it senses that she is missing some from her reserves.

Sakura, because of this, has had to let go of chakra again and again which has become a treacherous act seeing as that it takes quite a bit of energy to make her chakra become one with her environment. Time and time again Sakura desperately wished that she had her master's Yin seal seeing as she is letting perfectly good chakra go to waste.

Sadly she will need to wait longer before she is even close to the level needed to be able to perform the Yin seal. Sakura sighed, hey a girl could dream.

With that Sakura continued training, she had long ago been able to hit targets of high amounts with her kunai, and in a perfect bulls'eye. Now she will be working on hitting a target while moving around the training spot without stopping.

She has also slightly mastered hitting targets while using varied amounts of kunai at a time but she was nowhere close to being able to hit a target while moving around too much. Currently she was only able to hit three targets bull's eyed while the nine other targets are either hit in the side or she completely missed them.

Sakura sighed. ' _This is going to take long'_

' **You said it sister'** Inner said equally exasperated.

* * *

Next month (August)

After completely mastering Kunai throwing, to a certain degree anyway, Sakura began throwing shuriken, then adding senbons to the mix. It took a while, and many runnings back and forth, but Sakura was finally contempt with her accuracy, for now atleast.

She had also been working on her speed, stamina and had worked on building muscle mass by running around the structure of the village -she could only go half way before tiring- multiple push-ups, sit-up and other exercises that left her sore the next day. She had not just practiced kunai throwing, she had practiced many other exercises that would highed her body stats which had sucked since day one.

Though training every day was starting to get treacherous, and it showed in her performance with her team and the hospital. After falling into light sleep for the third time while working on some paper work she was helping Tsunade with Sakura finally decided to have five days of physical training while two days will be left for just meditating.

Tsunade has taught her a medical technique that she could use while meditating that made her feel five times more refreshed than if she would take a whole day's worth of sleep. It worked like a charm and Sakura started showing better performance in the mornings and afternoons, the only bad thing was that by Sunday Sakura passed out completely after using the technique in the weekdays.

The technique, while useful, was a little like coffee. It gave her a burst of energy, the bad thing was that after a certain amount of time the effects would catch up to her and she would be completely useless after, either passing out or becoming paralyzed, neither being great but to Sakura they were worth it in the end.

' **You know, Naruto isn't going to take anymore of our ignoring'**

' _I know, and Ino is looking ready to burst any day now'_ Sakura said back in a somewhat nervous tone.

Her training had taken a major blow in her personal life, that fact she could not deny. She had started to decline more and more hang-outs with her team and her girl-friends. It has gotten to the point where Ino was most likely planning to tie her down on a restaurant table or Ino's room and _make_ Sakura spend time with her.

Sakura just had to avoid them the best of her ability, that couldn't be too hard right?

O.O.O

Sakura was officially a dead girl.

"Now Sakura, tell us why it was that you have been avoiding us" A sickly sweet voice made itself known in the dark room.

"I-I don't know what your talking about" Sakura found it that playing dumb was the smartest thing to do in a situation like this. It was most likely a life-or-death situation and she felt that death was not part of her plans.

"So then why is it that you tried to run away when you caught sight of us" Another voice cut in. Sakura was starting to curse her decision of avoidance. These girls were not ones to mess with, she had learn that fact a few months back. She was, officially, screwed.

"S-Sakura-chan wh-why is i-it that you ha-have be-been avoiding us?" Oh goddammit you could not talk back to that sweet voice, Hinata was too cute for her own good. Just kill her now and let her suffering end for Kami's sake. Sakura knew she was being melodramatic right now but she couldn't help it, she was tired, stressed, and did not want to deal with this right now.

"I was not, I was just a bit busy in the hospital these past few days, but I promise to hang out with you guys more often" Sakura lied through her teeth.

She did not want anyone to know about her solo training just yet so she instead used the hospital as an acceptable excuse. She would just have to deal with her physical problems such as tiredness after dealing with these girls.

"Oh, is that all, well you should have just told us that from the beginning damn forehead. But you better not avoid us anymore or else I will personally make you pay ya hear? Now lets go shopping!"

With that all was forgiven, the four teen girls which consisted of Hinata, Ino, Sakura and a bun haired girl named Tenten, who Sakura and the two other girls had met in a cafe a month ago and made friends with, went out to shop till they dropped.

Though Sakura knew that she had to be more careful on her training schedule from now on. She knew that next time she would not be so lucky.

O.O.O

After some careful thinking Sakura made it so that she still had at least a day free a week to spend with either her team or the girls. Although she always a a gut-wrenching feeling to go back to the field and be surrounded by nature instead of spending her time with her friends Sakura managed to squash those feeling down.

After some time Sakura found how much she really did miss spending time with her friends. While she still got major headaches from Sasuke and Naruto's constant fighting she found them quite entertaining, in some occasions that was.

She also found the feminine company quite relaxing, especially when they had sleepovers consisting of giving each other makeovers and even massages.

Still that did not beat the feeling she always got being out in the field, surrounded by green and the feeling of accomplishment she always got when she trained. Still, Sakura was more than happy spending time with her dear friends and team, she was a socialist at heart and being away from them had really pained her more than she had originally thought.

Once more Sakura was able to cover that feeling of solitude that she had felt not so long ago, the feeling not even her dear nature could cover.

Later in the month Tsunade saw it fit to train her in the art of dodging seeing as that that was a high aspect for medical ninja training to be field medics.

Sakura was starting to regret letting Tsunade know about her progress. Training with her Shishou was like hell on earth. The first thing upon reaching the training ground was a spar to see how good Sakura was at dodging Tsunade's hits.

Being beaten black and blue did not go even close to what Sakura experience. By the end of the spar Sakura had four broken ribs, a broken foot, bruises running all over her body, a slash going from her right knee all the way to her left shoulder from a not so soft hit to a tree. Splinters covered her whole body and a black eye was starting to form in her right eye. She also had a twisted arm and some internal bleeding.

Sakura was starting to see Shizune as a god in disguise for being able to survive this torturous training if it was even labeled as training at all. The only upside was that Tsunade healed all the major injuries leaving no scar behind. She left the harmless cuts alone though.

"Okay for the first training exercise is learning how to heal under 10 seconds while leaving your hand in one place. you must be able to move your medical chakra around to heal _all_ your injuries without having to move your hands." Tsunade explained the procedure to Sakura with a sickly sweet smile. Sakura could see from the shine in her eyes that she was enjoying this more than she should.

"B-But Tsunade-shishou only experienced medics can do such a thing, I don't have the chakra control necessary to do such a feat" Sakura complained to her obviously insane mentor.

"Nonsense now begin, we will be working on this until late afternoon, then we can work on your flexibility and dodging maneuvers" Tsunade said back, a content smile on her face. Sakura was starting to think that she found amusement in her pain, the sadistic woman.

"Hai Shishou" Sakura gave up trying to reason with her, instead opting to do what she was told. And that was how Sakura spent the next 5 hours doing.

O.O.O

Completely exhausted and chakra depleted Sakura looked at her mentor with a tired expression on her face. She tried to heal the cut on her cheek while keeping her hand on her stomach, she had sadly failed and had only managed to close it slightly to stop the bleeding, not able to control her chakra there from such a distance.

Giving an exasperated sigh Sakura glared at her green glowing hands. How the hell was she ever suppose to do this? She was just not ready to be able to do this feat, not even many high ranking medics in the hospital could heal without moving their hands close to the wounds.

' **You said the same thing about the Kunai throwing and look now, we can throw kunai along with shuriken and senbom with perfect accuracy and even throw more than one at a time'**

' **You just need more practice, don't give up now'** Inner reprimanded her, Sakura nodded inwardly. Inner was right, she needed to get her head out of the gutter and try harder, not just give up right off the bat.

"Let's stop this practice for now, we need to start with your dodging exercises. The most important thing for a medic ninja is to never get killed in the field. With the medic dead how do you think the remaining ninjas will be healed? It is highly important for a medic ninja, especially one wanting to be a field medic, to know how to dodge like a pro" Tsunade lectured Sakura.

The pink haired girl just nodded at her master, she already knew all of this from many texts that she has read about Medical ninjas. The fact that Tsunade recited this almost once a week helped too.

"Now lets start!" Before Sakura could prepare herself Tsunade took out a bat and hit four baseballs in her direction. They hit her full force making her scream out before falling in her knees. God that freaking hurt.

Before she could gather her bearings Tsunade made five clones of herself and made them hit different colored balls which were hit in Sakura's direction making them explode in different colored smoke.

Sakura accidentally breathed in some of the smoke making her really light headed and nauseous. She stood up but started flailing around feeling herself coming close to collapsing. Before she could utter any word of defeat Tsunade had already kicked a type of ball to her direction, the force making the ball burst into flames as it came close to Sakura.

Before Sakura could properly bid this life goodbye the ball hit her fully with so much force the place around her burst into flames. Feeling the world spin Sakura mumbled a few chosen words to her insane mentor before falling into the soft earth, already accepting her fate.

One thing was certain from the experience, Sakura would be blessed if she survived another session of her mentor's training.

* * *

The following month (September)

Sakura has successfully managed to survive training with Tsunade, which was a feat all on its own.

After a few more weeks of meditating and concentrating she has finally managed to heal herself without the need of moving her hands to different directions, though she still couldn't heal all that fast sadly. After mastering that Tsunade taught her how to heal internal injuries as well along with a few new high leveled medical techniques, which took way more time than they had to.

After learning how to healing internal injuries and some of the techniques as well she was taught how to heal internal bleeding and even brain trauma. She successfully accomplished the feat after weeks of training nothing but Medical techniques and physical training.

After many visits to the Library Sakura had gotten many new techniques that fit under the categories Tsunade had told her to train in, she was then told to practice them on volunteers in the hospital which Sakura had been more than nervous about.

She had managed to stop a Civilian's broken arm with the supervision, the feat taking around 30-40 minutes. She had also managed to heal another civilian's internal bleeding from the stomach, with the help of Shizune of course, she was still not advanced enough to do that type of healing on her own.

Tsunade was more than please with the news, giving Sakura the week free from hospital duty and training -though the training was her option-.

Sakura used the opportunity to get new clothes. She had been saving quite a bit of money from her work in the hospital and the missions she did, seeing as that it has been a while since she had last gone shopping Sakura decided that buying new training clothes would be a nice treat for her hard work.

She had long ago seen that her dress is not acceptable wearing for training. It always got in the way and restricted her flexibility. Looking around the store Sakura looked for loose ninja clothes that would both be easy to move in and airy so that she would not get warm in the hot weather.

Upon further thinking Sakura decided in buying two outfits, one for use in warm weather and another for use in cold weather seeing as that it was quite close to the time of year were coldness will be prominent.

After inspecting the whole store in a way an experience shopper would Sakura had finally found just the right clothes for her purposes.

The first outfit consisted of a white sleeveless button up shirt, the buttons were black and the shirt will hug her body quite well. The material was flexible making it easy to move. She also found some black, knee length shorts, they were made of flexible material as well. The material was also looked quite thin but upon touching it it felt thick making it hard to cut.

The shorts also had pockets in the front and back. They were skin tight yet where stretchable enough to be easy to move around in. Grabbing her new outfit Sakura looked around more to see if she could find an outfit to use in colder weather.

Finally, after around two hours of looking Sakura had found the outfit she could wear in the colder weather.

The outfit consisted of a black kimono shirt with long sleeves that ended mid-hand. The Kimono shirt was border on the bottom with darkish green vine that seemed to wrap around the bottom part of the shirt. She also found some black pants that vine designs wrapping around the legs, it went along quite well with the black shirt and the black color will make it attract more warmth, perfect for cold seasons.

Smiling at her two new outfits Sakura went to the chash register and paid for both her outfits before leaving the store and heading home.

' **Lets go home and try out our new outfits!'** Inner Sakura said excitedly.

' _Okay okay, calm down Inner promise the minute we get home I'll try out the outfits'_ Sakura said inwardly with a smile, she was really in a good mood right now.

"SAKURA-CAN!" She heard a voice call out to her. Turning around Sakura quickly moved out of the way before Naruto was able to give her one of his bone crushing hugs. Naruto, not expecting her to dodge, wasn't able to stop which ended up in him hitting a wall of a building head on.

Sakura suddenly was thankful of her mentor's dodging training, any other time Sakura would have been too slow to dodge one of Naruto's hug attacks, this truly proved that her training was really paying off. The thought made Sakura well up with pride, all that training really wasn't in vain, she was truly improving.

"Hn, dobe is it me or are you getting slower" Hearing that statement all of Sakura's pride wilted. Looking at the owner of the voice Sakura wanted nothing more than to fry that chicken-assed-prick of a jerk. She had long ago gotten over her crush with the black haired male, around a few weeks before going to Tsunade to train in the fields alone.

There was only so much hate Sakura could take from the black haired teen before snapping, though she was sure everyone else though she still held the same childish crush she once had. The fact making her hate herself for being such a naive idiot.

"TEME" Naruto shouted out his insult to said black haired boy, glaring him with fierceness in his blue eyes.

"Dobe" Sasuke retorted back, before one of their usual fights could begin again Sakura cleared her throat loudly.

"What do you guys need?" Sakura said cooly, still pissed at Sasuke's indirect insult.

Seeming surprised with Sakura's tone of voice Naruto looked slightly shocked at her before smiling brightly like he usually does. "Kakashi-sensei told us to tell you that we will be going on a mission tomorrow at 6 o'clock sharp."

Sakura nodded at the information, giving Naruto a thankful smile before turning around, fully intended to go back home.

"Sakura wait" Naruto successfully stopped her from leaving to her home, Sakura inwardly cursed her luck before turning to Naruto, a fake smile in place.

"What is it now Naruto?" Sakura questioned the orange clad boy with a strained voice, all she really wanted to do right now was head home and try out her new outfits, was that really too much to ask.

"Do you want to get Ramen with me and Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked with his usually grins. Sakura was about to decline but she was suddenly stopped by a glare from a certain Uchiha.

"Just say yes or he will be sulking to me the whole week like he usually does when you decline" Sasuke said with an irritated voice, looking at Naruto with a displeased look on his usually stoic face.

Accepting her fate Sakura walked with her two suppose teammates heading to were Ichiraku, Naruto's favorite ramen stand, was located at. Sitting down in one of the stands Sakura ordered a bowl of shrimp ramen before looking at her team mates. She was really starting to feel awkward sitting with them.

Over time she has started to drift away from them, that being a few weeks after starting solo training, and now it was like there was a wall between them. Sakura might be part of their team physically, but mentally it was really just Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi..

After she decided to start training alone she stopped hanging out with them, not that they were close in the beginning. She was always the third wheel in the group, overlooked and forgotten, when you hear of team seven you usually think of Itachi Uchiha's brother as well as the second hire of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke Uchiha and the knuckleheaded ninja who always causes mayhem Naruto Uzumaki.

Then there is the pink haired female, the only thing Sakura is known for is being the Hokage's apprentice yet that isn't known by everyone seeing as that she wasn't taught all that much from her mentor just yet. But no more, Sakura _will_ be known, she will make a name for herself, she promised herself that much.

She was knocked out of her inner thoughts, quite literally mind you, by Naruto who was thrown in her direction. Sakura's left eye twitched as the bowl of Shrimp ramen she had ordered fell on her, slightly burning her skin. Biting back a wince Sakura's left hand unconsciously filled with chakra.

It seemed after her mentor had told her about how she was able to infuse her fist with chakra Sakura's mind had started doing it every time she was infuriated. It would be awesome if Sakura knew how to do it, but seeing as that she only knew how to control it vaguely she really shouldn't be doing it just yet.

"Naruto you Baka!" Sakura screamed at him before hitting him with the chakra induced fist.

The result was not what usually happened. Naruto, upon making contact with the fist, was suddenly thrown far away from the force, and was sent flying 10 feet from the location of the Ramen stand. When his body made contact in the ground it made a deep trail behind him before he finally stopped with his downward body facing upward and his head deep in the ground.

"What the hell" Sakura whispered in surprise, she looked over to Sasuke who was looking at her with a shocked expression. Sakura suddenly winced in pain as her hand started to throb painfully.

Looking down at her hand she was shocked by what she saw, her and was red and her fingers looked twisted or worse broken.

' _This really isn't my day_ ' Sakura thought with a pained expression.

' **Amen'**

* * *

 **Mevy** : And...Done! Yay made this one longer than the last chapter!

 **Sasuke** : But you didn't make it better

 **Mevy** : Oh shut it you little-

 **Sakura** : Eh come down Mevy, its great good job don't listen to the chicken butt

 **Shisui** : Hah, she burned you there cuz

 **Sasuke** : Glare

 **Itachi** : You're all a bunch of idiots (Eyes closed)

 **Mevy** : There's a genius for you, always thinking they're better than the rest

 **Itachi** : (Glare)

 **Mevy** : hehe, Bye! (Hightails it out of the room)


	3. Chapter 3 First time

Mevy: Hello everyone, okay for those who haven't noticed Chapter 2 was re-uploaded with the actual chapter, sorry about the confusion but Fanfiction is messing with the drafts and some of them are being mismatched for some reason. I was able to fix it slightly but I apologise for the delay T-T

Sasuke: I thought we got rid of you (sigh)

Shisui: Now now Sasuke-chan, don't be mean to Mevy-chan

Mevy: I am currently fighting the urge to kill you early in this story (Glaring at Sasuke)

Sakura: (Laughing nervously) Now now Mevy, don't get homicidal on us ^^'

Mevy: hmm Fine (Pouting)

Itachi: Hn

Mevy: Itachi-kun! (Glomps the Uchiha)

Itachi: (Left eye twitching) -/_\\-"

Mevy: Ino-chan disclaimer XD

Ino: Mevy does not own Naruto, anyways where are we? o.o

Shisui: (Looking around the room) I have no idea -.-'

Mevy: Oh we are just in my house, though located in an alternate dimension CX

Everyone: O.O

Mevy: (Laughing) Now the reviews (Rubbing back of head)

* * *

CherryBlossoms016: Sorry about that I hope you enjoy this story and I'll be more cautious in the future ^^

Guest: Sorry about that, as I said I uploaded the right chapter now and I hope you enjoy this chapter ^^

Lymira: Hehehe actually chapter 2 was a different story, sorry about that and I have fixed it now, I hope you enjoy this chapter ^^

Emzy2k11: I'm happy you enjoy the last chapter, I hope you also enjoy this chapter CX

Sarah885: Sorry about that, technical problems ^^' I was able to fix it and I hope you enjoy this new chapter XD

Xx Onyx Pearl xX: I am happy you enjoyed the last chapter, thank you for your alert, I didn't know that it did not send an alert -.-' I was hoping that it did but I guess Fanfiction does really hate me T-T Thanks again and I hope you enjoy this new chapter CX

LadyAnime18: I'm happy you enjoy the story so far, I hope you enjoy this new chapter and thank you, I was able to get all my studying done so I might be able to update sooner XD

Guest: I'm happy you enjoy this story so far, I hope you enjoy this new chapter XP

Deathr0ses: Don't worry when I start something I see it to the end, I'm not giving up on this story any time soon, I'm happy you like it CX

* * *

Mevy: So many reviews in just the second chapter T-T thank you all so much CX I hope you enjoy this new chapter ^^

* * *

 _I once believed that we would stick together,_

 _that I belonged with you guys,_

 _I was just living a lie._

 _As I stand there alone looking at you two,_

 _I understand that in the end I was not needed._

 _It was over from the beginning,_

 _in this puzzle I do not fit._

 _Tears falling I turn away,_

 _no more us, only you._

 _No more pain, only numbness._

 _As I walk away you don't move,_

 _'Cause really, in the end you did not care._

 _All that is left is the memory of us._

 _The bond will break,_

 _and a new one will come to be made._

* * *

Sakura was currently sitting on the chair in front of the Hokage's table. She was a nervous mess as she looked at her twirling fingers on her lap, completely avoiding the eyes of her mentor sitting in front of her.

"Sakura" The blonde haired woman spoke her student's name, looking at her sternly. "Could you explain to me why it is that there is currently a 3 feet deep trail in the middle of the street and why your hand was such a mess?" Tsunade questioned her pupil with a serious voice.

Sakura gulped before speaking up. "Um you see Shishou, Naruto got me a bit mad so I might have, maybe, unconsciouslyputchakraintomyfistmakingmehithimwithchakraenhancedstrenght" Sakura finished rapidly before taking a deep breath.

"So what you are trying to tell me is that you used chakra enhanced strength before I even trained you in the correct way to use it" Tsunade said with a grim voice, looking at Sakura with a mixture of both pride and anger.

"Sakura do I have to remind you of how dangerous that can be, you could have permanently damaged your hand beyond repair!" Tsunade reprimanded her pupil with a strict voice. She would have never believed that Sakura could be so reckless, it seems like her teammates are influencing her a little too much for Tsunade's comfort.

"Hai (yes), I'm sorry Shishou" Sakura said with her head bowed, voice small and solemn.

"On the other hand I can't believe that you managed to put chakra into your fists without me teaching you how to do it, true you couldn't really control it all that well, but still that is quite an accomplishment. Seems like the training with healing faster and with less movement is enhancing your chakra control" Tsunade said happily, completely dropping her seriousness from before.

"Now I don't want you to go using uncontrolled Chakra enhanced fists so I will be teaching you how to use it right when you come back from your mission, but I recommend strengthening your raw strength while you're at it, more raw strength makes your Chakra enhanced strength much more powerful" Tsunade lectured her student, who nodded excitedly looking ready to explode with happiness, she was going to learn Chakra enhanced strength! Finally!

"Seeing as that you will begin to train more in combat I will inform Shizune to begin your teachings in poisons" Tsunade continued with a smile. Sakura couldn't help it anymore, she squealed and hugged her mentor with all her strength.

"Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" Sakura thanked her mentor happily, she will finally improve and get stronger, no more weak little Sakura who stays in the sidelines. She will finally be able to fight side by side with her team.

"Don't forget though, we will still work on your medical technique. Seeing as that your chakra control increased I will be teaching you a technique that I have been saving for when I was sure you were ready." Tsunade informed her ecstatic student.

"The day after you come back I want you to visit a training room that will increase your dodging ability" Tsunade informed her student, Sakura nodded her head rapidly, she couldn't wait!

"For today go into the training grounds and rest up" Sakura looked at her Shishou questionably.

"Don't think I don't know how you use that technique I taught you, now go before I change my mind and make you stay here to help me finish my paperwork" Tsunade pointed to the three tall piles of papers next to her desk. Gulping in fear Sakura bowed in goodbye before high tailing out of the office and into her favorite training field.

~o.o.o~

The next day Sakura awoke in her bed, she had gotten home around 3 in the morning last night and still she felt really refreshed, that technique was godsent.

Looking at the clock she saw that it read 6:00 AM, knowing that Kakashi-sensei was not going to be in the training grounds until around 7 the earliest 10 the latest, Sakura started to pack her bag for the mission and proceeded to go into the bathroom to take a shower.

From what Sasuke told her, after she healed Naruto to the best of her abilities and before taking him to the hospital to be reprimanded by her mentor, they will be going in a scroll retrieval mission. It was a C ranked mission where Team seven will be getting a scroll from the tea country, the mission will take around 4 weeks at most depending on how fast they travel.

Team Seven was the Team with the most C ranked missions, though that was hardly unexpected with having the famous Copy cat ninja as a sensei along with two students of the famous Sannin Jiraiya and the Sannin Tsunade who was also the current Hokage.

The fact they also went to a B-ranked mission, although it wasn't on purpose, and figthing against the Mist Demon without dying was also helpful.

Sighing Sakura put on her new outfit, the sleeveless white shirt fit on great, it hugged her upper body nicely though Sakura didn't really have any curves to show off with it. The shorts wrapped around her thigh showing off long, pale white legs.

The clothes she has chosen fit her comfortable and hugged her body greatly. Walking around Sakura admired her new clothes before going out the door and heading to the training grounds.

' **I have to admit these clothes are way more comfortable than our old ones'** Inner Sakura said happily to Sakura.

Sakura smiled as she continued her walk until she finally came to a stop in Training ground 7. Looking around Sakura spotted Naruto and Sasuke bickering as usual. Naruto the most noisiest of the two.

Coming to a stop in front of them Sakura cleared her throat loudly.

"S-SAKURA-CHAN" Naruto said in shock, looking at her up and down.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Sakura questioned at the loud blonde.

"You changed clothing" Naruto said in shock, still looking at her choice of clothing.

Nodding confusedly Sakura tilted her head. "Yeah, the dress was starting to get in the way so I decided to use more flexible and comfortable clothing." Sakura explained. "Does it look bad?" Sakura questioned the blonde.

Blushing madly Naruto shook his head in a fast pace. "N-NO, it looks great on you Sakura-chan!" Naruto spluttered with a cheeky grin while rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

"Thank you Naruto!" Sakura said in gratitude, smiling brightly at him.

"Hn" Sasuke said, looking at them with disinterest.

"Hello to you too Sasuke" Naruto suddenly looked at her in shock once again.

"What is it this time?" Sakura asked once more in confusion and slight irritation.

' **Whats up with this boy and shock'** Inner asked, officially irritated at the blond.

' _I know, they are looking at me like I grew a second head, even Sasuke is looking at me in confusion'_ Sakura said inwardly, head slightly tilted.

"It's nothing Sakura-chan" Naruto said happily, Sakura wondered about his sudden happiness but decided against questioning it. She had enough headaches to last a lifetime.

She will not know that the reason for their shock was that this was the first time she ever uttered Sasuke's name without the usual 'kun'.

~o.o.o~

After around an hour of more talking Naruto sported three bumps on his head, a present from Sakura. Even Sasuke had two newly made bumps. He also now knows never to question Sakura's feminism for the rest of his life, the outcome was not pretty.

On the good side, Naruto had laughed so hard rivers of tears had fallen from his eyes, oh this was a good day indeed.

"You know Sakura-chan, I never thought I would see the day you would hit Sasuke-teme" Naruto said after his lunatic laughing spree. Sasuke grunted and glared the infamous Uchiha glare at Sakura, which promise a slow and painful demise from this world.

Sakura gave a bright smile back to Sasuke, completely unaffected by the glare, before turning to Naruto. "He needed to be taught a lesson, nobody questions my feminism" Sakura said, glaring at Sasuke with deadly green orbs.

"He's just lucky I still haven't mastered Chakra enhanced strength" At the mention of the super strength Naruto grimaced, he still has not forgotten the immense pain the technique had caused him, even if it was less destructive than it is originally it still hurts like hell.

"i really hope you never learn it" Naruto said with a grimace. Suddenly he realized what he said, before he could take it back Sakura had already hit him over the head. Hard.

"Why you little-" Before Sakura could say any more, or mortally wound the poor blond, Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke, unknowingly saving Naruto's life.

"Now now Sakura, it is not really lady like to curse like that" Sakura's eyebrow twitched as Sasuke took an instinctive step back and away from the homicidal girl, red lights flashing inside his head.

"Kakashi-sensei just because you read smut does not mean that you know what traits makes one feminine" Sakura said through gritted teeth.

Kakashi's only visible eyes widened before he closed it in one of his eyes-smiles. He asked in an amused voice "And how do you know the type of reading material I read Sakura?" Kakashi questioned.

The two males spluttered before turning wide eyes at Sakura. The pinkette blushed heavily before saying in an awkward voice, "Let's just start with the mission." Before anyone could argue back Sakura had already taken off to the direction of the gates.

The three males sighed before Naruto looked at Kakashi with a disturbed face. "Kakashi-sensei, do you really read smut?" Naruto questioned his teacher, looking quite horrified.

"Let's catch up with Sakura" Before Naruto could say anything else Kakashi had already disappeared in a poof of smoke. Turning to Sasuke he was met with a raised eyebrow as Naruto raised his shoulders. Both boys looked at the direction their female teammate took before starting to run in the same direction.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why I bother with the both of you" Sakura said in an exasperated voice, looking at her two burdens with a tick mark on her left eyebrow.

The two boys of team seven were currently having one of their usual bickerings over Kami knows what.

Giving an exasperated sigh Sakura closed her eyes.

Making sure she was in back of both Sasuke and Naruto, but yet in front of Kakashi who was always in back of the formation, Sakura let herself relax in a half meditating state. This was truly dangerous and left her in a vulnerable state making it easy for an enemy to attack, yet Sakura knew that if an enemy did attack she would have protection both in front and in back of her.

Letting her chakra spread out around her Sakura didn't concentrated her chakra in one tree specifically like she would usually do, instead she opted to feel the plant and animal life around her quickly as she kept walking.

Something about doing this, about letting her chakra touch the chakra of the living things of nature comforted her greatly and made her feel more energetic and fresh than any spa visit could ever make her feel. It was as if Nature itself was embracing her with warm arms, comforting her and making her feel safe and at home.

Sakura was brought out of her connection with nature by Kakashi flashing his chakra at her. Her eyes snapped open as she looked at him in question. Kakashi said nothing, instead he raised his eyebrow, his eyes shining with confusion in her direction.

Deciding to ignore her sensei Sakura turned her attention back in front of her, which was fortunate because if she had not done so she would have bumped right into Naruto and his eye-catching orangeness.

Stopping abruptly Sakura glared at the blond with gleaming eyes. Looking over at Sasuke she saw that he too had stopped walking, glaring at the surrounding area with sharingan eyes. Switching her attention back to Naruto, Sakura saw that he too was glaring at an area in the trees, lips curled back in a snarl and white slightly pointy teeth flashing.

"Why the hell are you guys stopping in the middle of the trail?" Sakura asked in confusion, suddenly her chakra went around her unconsciously, wrapping itself around the surrounding vegetation.

' **Concentrate and feel the world around you'** Inner Sakura suddenly told Sakura as she glared around her from inside Sakura's mind. Sakura inwardly looked at her Inner confused before concentrating on the surrounding area with her chakra that was wrapped around the plant life, more specifically the trees.

Sakura's eyes widened at what she found, 8 chakra signatures were hidden in the trees surrounding them. Although their chakra signature was cloaked Sakura could still feel the chakra that was being held inside of them through the trees that they were standing on.

Her eyes sparkled in awe as she held back a grin threatening to spill on her lips. This could be useful, very useful. Sakura knew that the boys knew about the Ninja due to their training. There was also the fact that these Ninjas felt like low leveled ones, most likely rogues thinking they could pick on a defenseless team of genin. Sadly these rogues chose the wrong genin team to play around with.

Turning to her sensei Sakura gave him a look that obviously meant 'What do we do now?'. Kakashi only gave her one of his famous eye smile in response. Heaving a sigh Sakura turned to the Ninja that were still hiding in the trees.

"We know you're there, come out" Sakura said with a serious tone of voice, already getting six kunais out, three for both hands. Putting the three kunais in the middle of her index, middle, and ring finger Sakura got in an offensive pose.

"Oh looky here, three kids playing Ninja. How adorable" a raspy, disgusting voice sneered out from the covers of the trees. Glaring at where Sakura heard the voice, she was about to throw a Kunai to where she could feel the man's chakra, but before she could let even one Kunai slip her fingers Sasuke intervened, throwing a shuriken at the man. A sound of weapons clashing was heard as the man deflected the shuriken.

"Stop wasting our time and show yourselves already" Sasuke said with his usual monotonous voice, coal black eyes turning red with the sharingan, tomoes spinning dangerously.

"Oh this must be our lucky day boys, we're facing an Uchiha brat" Another voice said, he was also in the spot next to where the other man was.

"We can capture him and sell him" Another man said, "The girl could also be worth some yen, especially with that exotic hair of her" Sakura shuddered at the look the three bandits were giving her, she could just feel those revolting eyes on her.

Green eyes then burned fiercely at the comprehension of the male's words.

' _Oh these people are sooo lucky I still haven't learned the Chakra enhanced strength technique, I would have blown them to bits otherwise'_ Sakura thought with a bitter voice.

' **Let's decapitate these creeps'** Her Inner screamed, thirsty for blood. This was not unusual for Sakura, her Inner turned into a bloodthirsty monster if they were ever called, treated, or talked of in a way she did not like.

The men hiding in the trees came out, the sight of them almost made Sakura want to beg them to go back in the coverage of the trees. It would save her eyes from the pain.

There were really 8 men, she gave herself that much. Eight disturbing, disgusting and most of all uncivilized men. Sakura truly felt as if her eyes were going to burn at the sight of them, her nose was not faring any better.

The eight men looked middle-aged, maybe a few older teens here and there. They had unshaven facial hair growing and 5 were shirtless showing off hairy chests. Some of them had long hair, though they weren't as beautiful and well taken care off as many Hyuuga men that tended to leave their hair long, or like the truly gorgeous hair of one Uchiha Itachi.

Sakura shook the thought of the older male from her head, what in the seven pits of hell possessed her to think of the male, she truly did not know.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts Sakura looked at the males in front of her. One of them, seemingly the leader, grinned at them in a menacing way showing off yellow stained teeth. Sakura's inner medic came out, examining the males she deducted their conditions slightly, thought she was still too inexperience to know too much about them through only checking them with her sight alone.

She could still deduct however that they had been living in the wilderness for some time, the exact amount was anyone's guess. She could also deduct that two of the men were injured through their slightly slagging forms and poorly concealed pained looks.

If they were still in the trees Sakura might have been able to send her chakra into their bodies and be able to tell the weakest from the strongest, sadly Sakura could not make her chakra go to the men, only the live plant life, and sadly they were standing in the bare dirt trail, which Sakura did not know how to spread her chakra into. She will have to work on that when she got home.

The leader took a menacing step forward before seemingly deciding that fighting would be too much work for him. Looking at the men from his left, he opened his mouth to give the three men his orders.

"You three take care of the rats" He then turned to the four men on his right. "You four take care of the man in the back."

Sakura had completely forgotten about Kakashi, turning she gave him a look, still he did not move a muscle.

"Sasuke, Naruto take care of them" Kakashi ordered the two boys. Sakura almost wanted to cry out in protest but refrained from doing so. She was not ready yet, she reminded herself.

' **Ready my ass, we trained for this!** _ **'**_ Inner complained in outrage, glaring at her sensei with irritated black eyes, giving him the finger.

It was true, Sakura had trained in accuracy and stamina for this moment, she had trained with her chakra learning different ways to use the raw power in a offencive way.

Mentally sighing Sakura watched as usual as the two boys beat the enemy nin with moves taught by their teachers. ' _If only Tsunade didn't have her duties as Hokage, I would have been stronger if she had more time to teach me'_ Sakura thought sadly, looking at the fighting figures of her teammates.

Her eyes dulled at the thought of her place in team seven, she wasn't really part of the team, and never was. She always questioned her position in the team, she was their medic, nothing more and nothing less. She was restricted from fighting, even if it wasn't spoken out loud, she knew that she was not allowed to fight for kami knows what reason.

Feeling wetness well up in her eyes Sakura sucked her tears back in, she touched her cheek with her hand and sent green chakra up until it reached her eyes, she then healed the slight swelling caused by the water. She didn't need her teammates to see that she had been close to crying, they thought of her weak enough.

Suddenly Inner screamed at Sakura to block, bringing a kunai up Sakura blocked a kunai from almost decapitating her. The man, already anticipating the block, swiped at her with his other hand which was also holding a Kunai and stabbed her on the thigh.

Taking out another kunai the man swiped once more at her, Sakura stumbled back as she grabbed her bleeding thigh, chakra wildly thrashed around her as she bent backwards to dodge the blade that was about to stab her left eye.

Falling on her butt Sakura touched the grass with wild chakra begging anything to help her in this predicament. As if hearing her plead the grass suddenly grew from under the man's feet and grabbed a hold of him. He snarled at her and was about to throw the Kunai directly at her.

Without thinking Sakura sent healing chakra into her free hand, the healing chakra meant to do more harm than good if used correctly, and touched the man's stomach before he could try to give her any more damage.

The chakra she sent into him was meant to close the pathways in an organ or body part because of infection or even poison so that the medic could heal the infection or take out the poison without worrying that the infection/poison would spread.

When used on the stomach it usually meant food poisoning, it was meant to stop the poison from going into the colon and traveling through the digestive organs and in time, completely poisoning the whole body.

Though when using this technique the medic will have to keep sending healing chakra into the body or else the digestive system will malfunction seeing as that the stomach no longer will be working, the medic will have to use her chakra to put the body in a state of half sleep half paralysis to keep it from completely stopping and eventually causing the victim to die. By putting the body in a trance it will make it so that the digestive system can survive without the need of the stomach for a short amount of time.

If this is not done the esophagus will start welling up with blood from the close path way and the colon will stop working completely in a matter of seconds, this will then affect the small and large intestines making them start overworking in attempt to continue the bodily function before they stop functioning as well.

The rest could be seen as a type of domino effect as the esophagus tries to rid itself from the the blood filling in it making the patient choke it out, a sign of the body malfunction, before the body stops working completely and the patient finally dies, most of the time from the body shutting down than from choking on his own blood.

All of this happening in a matter of minutes, especially considering the amount of medical chakra Sakura had sent in the man's body. Green eyes wide in horror , Sakura saw the man's own eyes widen as well before he choked blood out, some specks of it fall on her face and hair.

The man grabbed his throat before the pain of his intestines fighting and slowly shutting down came in. The man screamed in pain as he fell on his knees looking at her with a look of pure horror and fright.

Yes, what her mentor had said was true, even if the general ninja thought of the medic as the most defenseless of the ninja population, a medic was just as dangerous as any ninja could be. Especially seeing as that the medic knows of how your body works and, with the right knowledge, how to shut it off with a tap of his/her finger.

Bringing green healing chakra filled hands Sakura half heartedly healed her wound as she janked the kunai out making her wince and bite her lip in pain. Eyes set on her healing hands as she finished healing her wound, Sakura saw how truly dangerous a medic would be, it was actually quite fortunately that most medics spent to healing more than killing.

Looking at the still dying man Sakura had the urge to go up to him and heal him, to show him that she didn't actually mean to kill him in one of the most painful ways powerful, having his own body shut down.

Crushing the urge Sakura saw the man choke up blood one last time before finally dying, most likely from choking than his body shutting down seeing as that it would take more time for the affects to come in fully.

Looking around Sakura saw that the boys were still too busy fighting that they did not pay the slightest attention to her, most likely thinking the person that had made the man scream was their sensei instead of the defenseless little Sakura who couldn't hurt a fly.

Looking at where she knew her sensei was she saw him looking at her with shock in his only visible eye, she saw that he was way closer to her than he last was, most likely because he was going to 'protect' her from the 'threat'.

Sakura felt vile go up her throat, before she could throw up in front of her teacher Sakura turned around and ran into a bush and emptied her stomach on it. At the thought of her stomach Sakura thought of what she did to that man's own stomach which made her throw up once more, only this time Sakura did not have any more food in her body to discard and so instead her body heaved fluids which, to her displeasure, included blood.

Standing from her kneeling position Sakura cleaned her mouth with the back of her hand as her knees shaked. That was the first time she ever taken a man's life, and quite frankly Sakura wished she would have took it with a kunai in the heart rather than the way she did. At Least the pain would have been less and the death would have been faster instead of dragging out as it did.

Upon the thought of the man's frightened looking eyes directed at her Sakura felt tears prick on her eyes, she did nothing to stop them from falling.

The boys seemed to have finished with their own battles as they looked at Sakura with concern, Naruto's more visible than the Uchiha's.

"Sakura what's wrong!?" Naruto questioned in concern, his question quite loud. Sakura's already throbbing headache increased, she tried sending chakra into her head from her hand on her stomach but found that she did not have the concentration needed to do the feat. Sakura filled her hand with green medical chakra but at the sight of the chakra Sakura blanched and quickly stopped the chakra.

A look of understanding crossed Kakashi as he looked at the boys over. Naruto had a scratch on his cheek and a few on his hands from where he could see. Sasuke looked unharmed, thought he could catch the slightest signs of bruising on his arms.

"Boys Sakura will check over you guys in the morning, right now she will put cream on your outward harm, you do have medical cream right Sakura?" Kakashi questioned the obviously distraught girl. A ninja's first kill was always the hardest, he still remembered his first kill, Sasuke hasn't even done his first kill yet now that he thinks of it, neither has Naruto but that was expected of the peaceful Uzumaki.

"Whats wrong with Sakura-chan!?" Kakashi motioned over to the dead body of the rouge ninja, the boys looked over to where their sensei motioned to. Upon seeing the dead body both boys came to a conclusion, unfortunately it was the wrong one.

Naruto walked over to the pink haired girl as he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "There there, it's okay Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei had to kill the ninja, I know you might think it's not right, I don't really either, I understand how you feel" Naruto said in a soft tone of voice, they all still got disturbed when Kakashi-sensei killed a ninja, usually if it was a bandit with no actual purpose like these they would just knock them out and leave them tied to a tree, in few occasions they did dispose of the Ninja but not too often, and Kakashi-sensei was the one who would dispose of them.

Sakura seemed to flinch in his hold as she got out of his hold quickly, tears still streaming down her face.

"Naruto, I was not the one to kill that Ninja" Kakashi said with a soft tone of voice, looking at Sakura with concern. Understanding flooded Naruto as he looked at Sakura with shocked eyes.

Sasuke's eyes turned into sharingan once more as he looked over the ninja's dead body. His eyes opened wide at what he found, traces of Sakura's chakra covered the man's stomach seeming to block something, Sasuke currently wanted nothing more than to have the byakugan to see the true damage that Sakura had caused the man, sadly all he could really see was the small amount of chakra that was located inside the man and that the man no longer had a chakra signature meaning he was truly dead.

Sighing Sasuke looked at the currently traumatize girl, what has she done to that man? He remembered the bloody scream he heard from this direction, he had thought that Kakashi was the one responsible to that man's pained scream but finding out that it was his female teammate was truly a surprise.

But seeing her shaking form, blood staining her thigh from were he could see a rip possibly from a wound, her wide eyes as they seem unlooking as tears streamed down from them seeming never ending, Sasuke shook his head.

They will have to keep her from engaging into combat again, if they did not want this to happen again.

Sakura seemed to have no control of her actions causing her to take a life, which then causes her to go into a panic mode of self loathing making her useless.

Sakura was just too weak for the ninja life.

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Mevy: And… that's a keeper ^^

Sakura: You little… (Glaring at Sasuke)

Sasuke: -.-' Hn

Shisui: That was low even for you cuz (Shaking head teasingly)

Naruto: (Staring at Sakura) Still can't believe you actually killed someone O.O

Everyone: NARUTO!

Sakura: (Gloom)

Kakashi: (Sigh) That's it for today, hopefully by next chapter everything calms down

Mevy: That's unlikely CX

Itachi: Hn

Shikamaru: How troublesome

Mevy: Bye for now! Also please review!


	4. Chapter 4 New Senseis!

Mevy: Halo there people! I'm sorry about the delayed updates but I haven't had much time to edit my chapters all that much XC Hope you guys can forgive me! T.T

Shisui: I can't wait till I get to interact with Cherry! *Hugging Sakura*

Sakura: Shisui! *Blush*

Itachi: *Grabs Shisui by the collar* Idiot *sigh*

Naruto: Hey! Sakura is mine and mine only *Glaring*

Sasuke: Shut up dobe *Glare*

Naruto: Teme *Glare*

Mevy: Like brother like brother

Sakura: You said it *sigh*

Mevy: Ino the disclaimer please *Rubbing forehead in frustration*

Ino: Mevy does not own Naruto or its characters! *Hearts in eyes* SASUKE-KUN! *Tries to glomp Sasuke*

Mevy: Now to the reviews before I lose any more sanity T.T

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CherryBlossoms016: Sadly I still need these two idiots for the story, but I could let you torture them and just have Sakura or Tsunade heal them XP I'm trying to have Kakashi not be all that aware of how Sakura is truly feeling, you'll see what I mean in future chapters CX Hope you enjoy this new chapter XP

Guest: Thank you for your review! ^^ Yeah Sakura will be sure to prove Sasuke wrong but for that to happen she'll have to develope better in skills. For sure Sakura will not be left in the sidelines, she will fight more in this story and there will be a time in which Sakura while still learning in medic justus will start concentrating in other teaching, what it is and for what reason is a surprise XP Hope you enjoy this new chapter ^^

Jasss: Thank you so much for your review! I'm happy to see that you're pumped for this story ^^ sakura will show Sasuke that she can fight for herself, let's just say there is a reason why I made Sasuke think the way he did XP No worries Sakura will develop highly as a Shinobi through this story proving that she isn't one to be looked down apon CX Hope you enjoy this new chapter XD

Regin: Thank you for your review! I'm happy that you like this story so far ^^ Hope you enjoy this new chapter ^^

Xx Onyx Pearl xX: I'm happy that you like this story so far XD Yeah Sasuke can be really egoistic at times XP So now it's time for Sakura to prove them wrong! Hope you enjoy this new chapter CX

Rizu Hatake-hime: Yeah Sakura doesn't seem to be looked upon with as much respect as she deserves! No worries she'll make them see her for the strong Shinobi she truly is! also she won't dwell too much into the kill she did, let's just say that she will soon have to learn how to deal with death appropriately but don't worry I won't make her any type of emotionless uncaring Shinobi, we already have too many of those *Shudder* Also for Itachi let's just say you'll enjoy this chapter particularly ;D Hope you enjoy this new chapter XP

Sakura Hatsu: Lol Sakura will soon show them never to underestimate us girls! Also the reason for Sakura knowing about Icha Icha paradise XP Hope you enjoy this new chapter XD

Guest: I'm happy you enjoy the story so far! Thank you for your review CX Hope you enjoy this new chapter XP

Guest: I'm happy that you enjoy this story so far! Sorry about the long wait and I hope you enjoy this new chapter! CX

Deathr0ses: Sorry for h long wait! I'm happy that you enjoy it so far! CX HOpe you enjoy this new chapter XD

Naomipy: Thank you for your review! sorry for the long wait and I hope you enjoy this new chapter XP!

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Thank you all for your reviews ^^ I am soo happy that many of you guys are enjoying this story so far! Hope you all enjoy this new chapter CX

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The remaining time of the mission went by slightly more smoothly. After some meditation time in which she practically memorized the entire chakra pathway from a certain tree she was facing Sakura had finally gotten her bearings back. Mental slaps from her Inner helped too.

Bringing forth her healing chakra Sakura thought of the people she had healed with this chakra, which quickly overpowered the thought of the man she had killed just yesterday. She was finally eble to put it behind her, don't get her wrong though, the face of the man will forever be imprinted in her mind never to be forgotten.

After finally relaxing herself Sakura had gone up to the boys and told them to let her look over their wounds.

Naruto's wounds had healed naturally and he did not have a single bruise on him, Sakura truly thought this blond haired idiot was some sort of secret medic with his wounds healing as fast as they did. Though considering the amount of chakra control he contained that thought flew out the window.

Sasuke on the other hand had a big bruise on his left thigh, most likely from a kick on his side, and other bruises lining his hands. Healing the bruises till his skin was unmarred once more Sakura nodded at a job well done and turned once more to her self-proclaimed spot, going back to her meditating position.

For the rest of the mission Sakura was relatively quiet. The boys, thinking she was still grieving over her kill, left her alone for the time being not wanting to deal with an 'overly emotional Kunoichi'.

Though in truth she was thinking of the phenomenon that happened when she …. took care of the man. Shaking the deep guilt she felt Sakura concentrated on her original thoughts. The grass. The grass had reacted to he calls, however outrageous that sounded it had truly happened.

' **I wonder how we are able to do that, the only time we heard of something like that was in Ninja academy with the First Hokage dude, and that was mostly with wood if I remember correctly'**

Nodding inwardly Sakura mulled over her thoughts, she needed to look more into that. Maybe, if she honed this skill she could truly use it to her advantage. The thought of her having a unique technique made Sakura feel better if not ecstatic.

Thinking back to her chakra type Sakura made a mental note to herself to go to a trip to the library to search up earth style techniques, maybe some water ones.

' **Noted'**

Thanking her Inner, Sakura then inwardly looked through what she knew of the First Hokage's techniques, from what she had learned in the Academy he used both Earth and Water type chakra to do his techniques. Maybe it was the same with her, she didn't know for sure but it wouldn't hurt learning a bit on water jutsus as a just-in-case measure. Though she would have to focus solely on Earth justus in the beginning seeing as that it was her prominent chakra type.

Smiling Sakura could feel her Inner helping in sorting through her thoughts, while she could be annoying at times she really did come through for her. Sometimes Sakura didn't know what she would do without her.

' **I do not know to either feel happy or mad about what you have said'**

Sakura accidentally laughed outwardly a that, though she regretted it when the rest of her team looked at her as if she had finally lost her marbles.

' **They had already thought that'**

' _Not helping'_

Turning away from them in their small campsite Sakura was excited to finally be getting back home from this long mission tomorrow. While she enjoyed sleeping surrounded by nature, dealing with the boy's bickering the whole way was starting to get on her last nerve, anymore of it and all her sanity will be lost.

In an attempt to drown her team's chatter, something that she never seemed to be included in, Sakura concentrated solely on the tree's chakra pathways, though that didn't keep her thoughts from drifting to them.

She admitted to herself that it was her fault that she wasn't part of this teams in the beginning, thanks to her fangirling her team seemed to have lost hope in her and because of that she was put out. Though that didn't help the bitterness she still held to them, she was trying to become better yet they seemed to still push her away, but now it was her turn to push, no longer will she try crawling to them.

Brushing the thought away Sakura retreated her chakra from the tree, experimenting Sakura covered three trees with chakra, the results were catastrophic as the three different signatures pulled at her to the direction of each tree as if they were playing a game of tug-of-war for her. Quickly bringing her chakra back Sakura opened her eyes and gave the three trees an exasperated look.

Seems that if she concentrated too much on more than one tree at once they will get clingy which sounded quite weird, we are talking about trees here people.

Sighing in frustration Sakura tried again only this time she just brushed her chakra on them instead of concentrating on them too much. The trees seemed to work with her as they guided her chakra through their trunk and branches helping her look though them. One actually pulled at her as it seemed to hold a squirrel in a hole, Sakura felt the chakra of the squirrel as it seemed to timidly touched hers back.

Feeling warm inside Sakura enveloped the squirrel, but it's chakra violently fought back as if it was being caged, seeing her mistake Sakura quickly let the squirrel go. Smoothing it gently with her chakra the squirrel's chakra seems to have calmed down. She was inwardly thankful to her chakra control lessons, yet she was surprised on how easily she could do this, almost as if it came naturally to her.

Sighing in relief that she had not spooked the little creature too much, Sakura tried gently nudging its chakra, once again moving timidly the squirrel's chakra shakily met hers as they seemed to intertwine and play with each other. The squirrel seemed to turn to her direction from what she could tell from it's chakra as Sakura opened her eyes slightly.

' _Inner make sure the chakra is in control_ ' Sakura told her Inner personality who nodded slowly in response.

Looking as the small creature came out of the tree located around 8 feet trees to her right Sakura watched intently as the small creature took tentative steps down its home.

Smiling brightly Sakura made sure to sooth the creature with her chakra she watched as the creature seemed to walk a little more faster the gentler and longer she soothed.

Almost now, just a few feet ,a little more, come here little fella.

"SAKURA-CHAN! What are you doing!" Naruto's loud bellow scared the squirrel half to death. Sakura tried in vain to try and sooth the critter again as it ran back inside its home and did not come out. No matter how much Sakura tried to call it with her chakra or sooth its frantic chakra Sakura could not convince the creature to come out again.

Turning, glaring mint green eyes looked at Naruto's own confused sky blue ones. "NARUTO! I was was trying something, you completely messed it up!" Sakura whinned at the orange clad boy.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan! I didn't know you were working on something over here" Seeing his sad blue eyes Sakura knew that she could not stay mad at the blond, he was just too innocent to be mad at for too long.

"It's fine Naruto" Sakura said with the best smile she could muster.

' _I could always try it again in the village'_

Inner nodded at the thought, there are less chances of there being...interruptions in their training at the village. "Kakashi-sensei said that we will be moving out now" Naruto informed the pinkette. Nodding to show she understood Sakura got up from her cross-legged position and stood next to Naruto.

"Let's go" Together the two genin headed to where their teacher was located at.

Behind them a small squirrel scurried out of it's home. Big brown eyes looked after the pinkette as the squirrel tilted its furry little head. The squirrel looked after the pinkettes retreating figure before going back into it's home, it's small chakra looking around for that peaceful, loving presence it felt before but found nothing.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU OR SHIZUNE CAN'T TRAIN ME!" A scream could be heard located at the Hokage's office, creator of the scream, none other than the Hokage's apprentice Sakura Haruno.

"I'm sorry Sakura but an important meeting is going to be held today, the Daimyō will be present along with his counselors, I need Shizune as my assistant and the meeting will last for at least a week. I won't be able to train you for this week it seems." Tsunade said with remorse, looking at her pink haired apprentice in guilt.

Nodding Sakura sighed. "I understand Shishou, what do you want me to work on in this time period" Sakura asked her teacher, she should be used to this by now. Sakura mentally chided herself, her teacher had more important things to deal with than teach her, she was being selfish in arguing with her.

"Go to the training room E-5, it's a room made to increase a person's dodging ability. It's mostly used by jonin or Anbu but a good amount of medics go there once and awhile. Though as you know the number of field medics are small and so it's slightly rare for a medic to go there. The room is high level but if you can survive my hits I'm pretty sure you can survive the room no problem" Tsunade smirked at her student with amused eyes.

Huffing Sakura playfully glared at her teacher. "Is that why you taught me how to heal with little movement of my hands?" Sakura questioned her mentor.

"That is right, did you practice on your healing speed and accuracy?" Tsunade questioned her student back, Sakura nodded but her eyes grew slightly downcast at the mention of medical jutsus.

Nodding in understanding Tsunade put a hand on her student's shoulder, who was on the right of her desk. "Kakashi told me about your little encounter with the Ninja, tell me Sakura how long have you been able to use plants as you did there?" Tsunade asked her pupil.

"I actually never did it before, i-it was sort of a reflexive reaction. Almost as if something inside of me knew I was about to die so it...reacted in a way. I don't know what the hell is happening to me and...I'm terrified Shishou!""

Tsunade looked at the shaking form of her student, pity shinning on her eyes. To be truthful she had been slightly distrustful of her student after hearing from Kakashi of what she could do. If she had hidden that what more could she be hiding? were her thoughts.

But seeing her now, shaking and truly scared of new findings Tsunade was sure she had no idea of how she came to acquire these new skills and because of that all thoughts of her pupil being untrustworthy left her mind, Tsunade cursed herself inwardly for jumping to such outrageous conclusions without true reason, this was Sakura she was talking about for Kami's sake!

Bringing her into a comforting hug Tsunade rubbed Sakura's back, she knew her student had been bottling up her feeling recently, never truly showing how she felt anymore even to her mentor. They stayed like that for a few moments, Tsunade silently giving her comfort as Sakura finally let all her confusion, her pain, her fear along with her self-loathing out.

Finally Sakura felt that she had mourned enough, she let go of her mentor as the blonde stepped back. Wiping tears that had formed in her eyes off Sakura smiled at her mentor, brushing off what had happened away. there were more important things that had to be dealt with than her emotions at the moment.

"So what do you reckon we do Tsunade-shishou?"

"Over the period in which I will be in the meeting I want you to research about this new..technique or whatever it is, of yours. Try to find as much as possible about it then when the meeting is over I want you to tell me your findings. I also want to make myself clear of this, do not under any circumstances tell anyone of this power of yours. I want this to be kept a secret as long as possible, Kami only knows what would happen if the council got a hold of this information"

Sakura shuddered at the thought, it was true if word got out that Sakura holds a new type of technique that resembled a kekkei genkai it will be bad news for her. The council always seemed to be a bit power-hungry this last few years, Kami only knew what they would do to Sakura if they caught wind of her new developement.

With a final good-bye Sakura started making her way out of the Hokage tower, heading to the training grounds.

First things first she will got to her special training grounds to meditate for a bit to recover a bit of energy, then she will visit training room E-5 to train there. Sakura had told Tsunade about the training room she often visits, which she found out was room B-1, and Tsunade was able to reserve that room for her. Thankfully there were numerous amounts of rooms like that one so nobody really cared all that much when the room was reserved, but Sakura just loved that room so much that she couldn't bare the thought of having to go to another if someone was using it.

Smiling Sakura walked into the training room and quickly got into a meditating pose. Calming her chakra Sakura gently spread her chakra around the room, her reserves had gotten bigger and now she was able to spread her chakra around 8 yards away from where she was. She decided to concentrate on putting her chakra into the dirt under the grass.

It did not work and Sakura could not get any feed back from the earth under her. Though the grass on the other hand practically called to her. The small almost non existing chakra the small grass had touched her own giving her a funny feeling in her body.

Deciding to try and do this another time Sakura used her chakra to cover a tree a few feet away from her. Unlike an animal the tree did not mind being covered, instead its chakra slightly touched hers back. Sakura watched in fascination as the tree worked with its chakra, keeping it alive and bringing its nutrients were they were needed.

She felt it as a leaf fell down, her chakra enveloped the leaf as she felt the small amount of chakra the leaf still had leave it little by little, soon it it'll die. With the chakra she was covering the leaf Sakura decided to experiment. Pulling her chakra to her Sakura still kept her chakra enveloped over the leaf. Nothing happened as cold sweat started to cover Sakura's forehead as she mentally played a game of tug of war.

With a final hard tug with her chakra Sakura did something that made her eyes widen, the small leaf suddenly came to her in high speeds, hitting her chest lightly as it stuck there with her chakra still covering it.

' _Interesting'_

' **You mean COOL! We practically controlled the little thing!'**

' _But it did take chakra away'_

And it was true, by forcing the leaf to come to her a bit of Sakura's chakra left her, though barely any was actually spent, it was barely a teaspoon of her chakra.

' **Enough of this for now! Lets just leave to room E-5 already! I want to try it out!'**

Sakura nodded as she left the training room and to the direction of room E-5. The small leaf twirling to the ground, Sakura didn't notice the way it seemed to be more lively, its green color brighter as more chakra swirled inside it keeping it alive longer.

O.O.O

Training room E-5 was one of the most deadliest room in the training grounds. It was a room originally created to train ANBU in the art of dodging but was then more constantly used by Field Medics and Jonin over time. Many have come out injured from the room, some even critically injured. It was a room you enter at your own risk and rarely used these days seeing as that there are now other ways to practice the art of dodging.

Sighing Sakura went over these facts in her mind. She could take it, she will not die in there. It can't be that dangerous right? If Tsunade sent her to that room it must be at least the bit safe right?

' **We are talking about the woman that trained us so hard we had gone into a comatose state for two days here'**

Pushing Inner's not so encouraging voice away Sakura took a deep breath, she was standing in front of the room that Tsunade had told, or better ordered, her to train in. Gulping Sakura tentatively stepped inside the room. It was filled with trees and had an opened clearing in the middle. It almost reminded her of her own training room only that this one had less trees and fire marks were seen here and there.

Although Sakura could tell that this room was cleaned frequently there were still bits of blood spotting some trees from what she could see. There were also scorch marks here and there and some trees looked as of their branches were ripped or burnt off.

All in all it looked like a fight had happened between the room itself and a shinobi.

Sighing Sakura sent a prayer to Kami as she she bit her finger deep enough for it to start oozing a bit of blood. The room worked though a really advance jutsu along with multiple seals made so that the room itself will throw weapons out at her. The only downfall, the room didn't have any levels so to speak. No matter who was present it always throws its weapons at the ninja and did not go easy on them no matter what level they were at.

To make the room 'turn on' you had to rub a bit of blood on the seal located on the right hand side corner of the door, through that the seal will shine and markings will appear around your wrist almost like a bracelet. After that all you will have to do is put a miniscule amount of chakra in the seals around your wrist to activate the room, the bad side was that the room can locate you wherever you where through the marking on your wrist.

Hesitating slightly Sakura rubbed her bloody thumb on the seal as the marking started moving through her hand and around her wrist, if she wanted to stop before the damage she sustained got too critical all she had to do was stop the flow of the chakra that was in the wrist markings, the markings thankfully didn't take all that much chakra away. All it really did was inform the room that there was someone who wanted to practice and it could know her every location.

So in other words no matter how hard Sakura hid the room will know where she was at all times. This was really hard level training and Sakura almost wanted to run out of the room, but the thought of what Tsunade would do if she found out Sakura did not follow her directions made Sakura cower from the thought of leaving.

Taking deep breaths Sakura quickly jumped up a tree, her speed had increased thanks to her training and Sakura was thinking of buying some weights to increase her speed dramatically. Suddenly all thoughts of anything but dodging was blown away from Sakura, quite literally mind you.

An exploding tag blew up in the tree Sakura had been standing on making Sakura dodge to the side, but not before getting a nice big burn on her side.

Sakura quickly put a hand on her shoulder as green chakra formed around her hand, healing the burns quickly. Spreading out a bit of her chakra Sakura let it move over the trees, suddenly the chakra in the tree frantically pushed her as Sakura flipped to the left, two kunai struck the place Sakura had been standing on.

' _Hm, this could be useful'_

Any other though was left unspoken as the tree Sakura was standing on moved as well under her own, it seemed to signal to the left as Sakura quickly moved to the direction the tree's chakra told her. She missed a shuriken that most likely might have struck her chest. Sakura mentally cried for someone to save her as she practically danced around the projectiles being thrown at her in every direction.

This time the trees were too slow to warn her as a kunai came quickly to her side, too quickly for Sakura to dodge as it struck her thigh deeply.

Wincing in pain Sakura dislodged it as more healing chakra healed her wound. Moving quickly Sakura used the tree's guidance as she dodge projectile to projectile. Many times the weapons were too fast for either the trees to inform her or for herself to try to even dodge as many times Kunai came striking her. Sakura forced her chakra to keep from healing the wounds completely, instead opting to kind of plug the wound, this way Sakura did not feel it and will stop bleeding.

She had read this on a medical book, it will keep her from wasting too much chakra and she could keep it like that until she could heal the wound more properly. Though it was not advise to keep it like that for a long amount of time or infection will come in, there was also the down part that if kept like that too long the wound will scar, but what harm can a few scars cause a person really?

Spreading more chakra out Sakura used the help of the trees as she continue to flip, run, back flip, cartwheel and twist her body in different ways to dodge the pointy weapons.

She decided to take a small rest in a tree when she felt that she could not dodge any longer when an explosive tag in the tree blew up. Sakura felt herself fall from the tree as she felt the tree's chakra frantically pull to her as if trying to bring her back to its branches. Sakura cut of the chakra from the markings on her wrist in reflex making the markings disappear as the room went into a sleep mode no longer trying to kill her.

Sakura tried to move but her injuries were too great and she was just so tired. She felt her eyes tightly shut as the ground was coming closer.

'I'm going to die aren't I?' Sakura absentmindedly thought to herself as her still not depleted chakra thrashed fiercely around her.

Warm arms enveloped her as her savior gently carried her bridal style as the person, a man from the flat muscular chest Sakura's head was resting on, gently landed on the ground.

"Now what is a little genin like you doing in this dangerous room little cupcake." A teasing voice questioned Sakura. Opening her closed eyes Sakura was met by the sight of coal black orbs watching her with amused yet still concerned eyes.

"Hm?" Sakura managed to mumble as her chakra came out of her body in high amounts, the man slightly flinched as her chakra quickly went into the into the grass before traveling up the man.

She felt his high amounts of chakra as it seemed to slightly push at her chakra that was connected to the grass under his feet.

"And what are you doing now?" The man asked in an amused voice.

"Sorry, reflexive action" Sakura apologised to the man that saved her from most likely death or at least a critical condition, seeing the tall tree she was going to fall down from.

"You still haven't answered my question, why is it that you are in this room?" The man questioned her.

"I came to train my reflexes and dodging speed" Sakura answered automatically.

"I see…..where is your instructor?" The man asked her.

"She's, occupied at the moment" Sakura answered, with a hesitance in her voice.

"You hear this Itachi? This genin is here alone! what kind of mentor would leave a genin one in this room?" Did that man just say Itachi!? Looking over the man's shoulder and as said Itachi was standing there, right next to the man still holding her.

"Hn" The Uchiha heir said, wait a minute. Looking at the male holding her Sakura almost heard her mind click.

'HOLY HELL! We were saved by Shisui Uchiha!'

' **And that's a bad thing! Just look at this man! Really he's soo HOT! I wouldn't mind to be in this position more times than once'**

At the the mention of the position Sakura felt her cheeks burn, looking at the male she saw an amused smirk cross his face.

"Ummm Uchiha-san? Could you please put me down?" Sakura questioned the Uchiha.

"None of that! Call me Shisui flower!" Nodding her head Sakura forced a smile on her face.

"My name's Sakura Shisui-san" She said with the nicest voice she could manage, but being at the presence of two of the strongest men in Konoha made her want to run out of here with her tail between her legs.

"Shisui let her down" Itachi said in one of his usual detached voice, a polar opposite to Shisui's happy go lucky tone of voice.

Upon noticing that she was still in his arms Shisui gently let Sakura down, careful in not aggravating her now bleeding wounds.

' _Must have opened when I fell into his arms'_ Sakura thought to herself.

"You you need us to take you to a medic?" Shisui asked me with a concerned voice. Lightly shaking her head she gave him a thankful smile.

"No need, I can heal my wounds myself." She told him before her hands blazed alive with green chakra. Sakura quickly found what was wrong before healing herself as quickly as she could, her hands positioned on her chest for better access to all her injuries yet she still had to move her hands a little lower to get the gash on her thigh.

Her healing speed was way slower than if Shizune or especially Tsunade would have healed her yet she still healed herself exceptionally fast. Upon seeing that her chakra would deplete before she could completely heal herself Sakura ate two chakra pills, they will put strain on her body but atleast she can heal herself fully, or as much as she could anyways, she was really going to feel this in the morning.

After healing herself in the best of her abilities Sakura sagged slightly.

"Wow, you are quite good at healing for your age" Shisui complimented her, and it was true, he had never seen someone heal themselves without the needing to move her hand's position, her mentor must be one heck of a medic. Sakura smiled at him thankfully, joy warming her insides at someone actually complimenting her skills, few people actually did and the thought of this powerful man complimenting her for her skill was quite the ego burst.

"Now why is it that you are not with your sensei in here to supervise you?" Shisui asked Sakura with a slightly serious voice, wondering what type of idiot would leave a little girl alone in this life threatening room, come on! She's a genin for Kami's sake!.

"Easy, my sensei is too busy with one of my teammates to train me, I do have a mentor though" Sakura answered to the Uchiha in front of her, Itachi seemed slightly more interested by what she had said, already knowing how Kakashi usually trained his brother more than he did his other students

"What about your mentor then? Why is she/he not here?" Shisui questioned me again, Sakura was really starting to feel like he's interrogating her right now, really why does he care so much about her training alone here!

' **Other than the fact that you almost went into a critical state in this room if he hadn't had catched you?'**

' _Oh shut up! Who's side are you on anyways!'_

"Umm...She's too busy to accompany me, I usually train by myself" Sakura replied truthfully, it's better to not lie to the two Uchihas who have quite a bit of power on their side, for her own sake.

"Then if you have no one to supervise you why in Kami's name did you come here of all training rooms!" Shisui practically yelled at me, looking ready to rip his silky strands out of his scalp.

"Because my Shishou told me to come here, and I really don't want to be punched half way across Konoha for not following her directions" Sakura said, wincing at the thought of her Mentor's punishment if she did not follow her directions.

"What type of crazy psychopathic person would make her student do this kind of training?" Shisui asked her with an exasperated voice.

"Actually it's not as bad as when she trains me personally in dodging, it's less painful and deadly to be truthful" Sakura said offhandedly.

At the look of Shisui's pitiful look Sakura wondered what she said wrong. "Your Mentor must be horrible beast" He told her with a pitying tone.

"Umm Shisui-san I might want to take that back if I were you" Sakura told the poor, unknowing soul. Oh he was lucky her Shishou was not here, she would have punched him through all the trees in this room and the other training room, making him hospitalized for at least a month.

"Why is that?" He questioned the pinkette quizzically.

"My mentor is the Hokage" Sakura answered, at the mention of who her mentor was his pale skin got paler looking quite grey. Understanding flashed his eyes as he looked at me with surprise.

"So you're the Hokage's apprentice huh, Oh lord please don't tell her what I said" He said looking at her with pleading eyes. Giggling Sakura nodded my head, promising not to say a word to the deadly Hokage.

Looking at the still quiet Uchiha, Sakura was met at the sight of Sharingan eyes, she flinched in reflex. Sakura didn't know why but she has always been frightened of the Sharingan.

"Why is it that your chakra is flowing inside the grass around you?" And so the Uchiha heir finally speaks. Looking at him Sakura sees what he meant, her last remaining chakra had spread from her body and had automatically went into the closest natural component, that being the grass she was standing on.

"It tends to do that" She answered, trying in vain to pull her chakra back, after seeing that her chakra would not budge she decided to leave it for now. She hoped that her mentor did not get mad at her for 'revealing' the secret to these two Uchihas.

Kami who was she kidding she was, officially, dead.

"So your chakra goes into living things without your consent?" Shisui asked with wonder in his voice, his eyes had also turned into sharingan now. Well this is turning out great, to answer or not to answer. Seeing Itachi looking at her with red eyes Sakura decided not to experiment in seeing if the sharingan can detect a lie.

"Yes but I mostly put it inside a tree or cover the tree with my chakra, though there are times I feel an animal with it" Sakura answers him, inwardly asking herself why she's telling all of this to the two Uchihas. It's like her mind is going against her and her treacherous mouth is spilling everything to them..

"So you have a natural affinity with well Nature?" Itachi asks her, looking at Sakura quite intently. No use keeping everything now, nodding in response she heard Shisui whistle.

"So what is your technical chakra type sweety?" Shisui asks with his usual grin.

"Ummm Earth is my main nature" Sakura answered, looking down at her feet to keep her blush from showing. These Uchihas are going to officially be the end of her, and to think Sasuke was one Uchiha too many.

"Oooh I have a lot of great Earth related jutsus I copied from these ninjas from Rock! Me and Itachi could teach you some of them" Shisui told her happily.

At hearing this Sakura felt like her heart was going to explode. Here she was almost without a teacher and these two well known powerful men were saying they will actually show her some techniques based on her nature. Maybe Uchihas aren't that bad in the end...

"What do you think cuz?!" An excited Shisui asked her still silent cousin, looking quite ecstatic.

"It would be awesome to have to train someone, especially when they ask for help and then…" Suddenly Shisui got a dazed look on his face, a smirk making its way to his mouth. Sudden thoughts of a 'innocent' version of Sakura asking for Shisui's help flowed through his mind. One particular scene making his mouth start to water.

Itachi hit Shisui on back of his head none to gently, making Shisui yelp and fall on his face from the force.

"I apologise for my cousin, he can be quite a pervert" Itachi apologised the slightly put off Sakura.

"Another one?" Sakura couldn't stop the words from escaping her mouth, at that Shisui started to laugh.

"So you are from Team 7 after all" Shisui suddenly came to the conclusion. Looking at Sakura with a silly grin on his face.

"How did you know that?" Sakura asked the older Uchiha, looking quizzically at her.

"Everyone knows about Kakashi's….reading habits. And no one in Konoha didn't hear Naruto yell about being taught by 'Pervy Sage' as he calls him." He looks at me with a twinkle in his eyes. "I also heard that the Hokage's new apprentice is on Team seven so it's not really that hard to put together" Nodding in understanding Sakura smiled at him happily.

"So what do you say Pinky? Do you want two knew senseis in your training?" Shisui asked Sakura with a smile.

Looking at Itachi quizzically Sakura mentally asked him what he thought of all of this. She did not want the Uchiha heir to be force to train someone as weak as her if he did not want to.

"You do seem to have potential" He said offhandedly, a small smirk making its way to his face. Wow was it just her or did all Uchihas have smexy smirks.

Sakura couldn't help it animore, bursting into happy tears Sakura practically threw herself at Shisui hugging him with all her strength. "Thank You, thank you.." Sakura repeated as she practically snuggled her face on his chest.

Shisui looked shocked as he saw the small pinkette practically snuggling on him. His eyes softened as he shot a smug smirk at Itachi, practically screaming 'Haha she hugged me and not you! In your face you emotionless bastard'.

Itachi glared as he saw the small girl hugging his cousin and him hugging her back, if he wasn't careful his cousin will do something that will drag them both in trouble. especially seeing as that this girl had close connections to the Hokage, just perfect.

Sakura quickly got out of the embrace, quickly wiping her face ridding herself from the tears. She just had to go and embarrass herself like that, Kami she had the worst timing in letting her defenses down.

"I-I'm so sorry S-Shisui-san" Sakura apologised, eyes traveling to her feet as her turned scarlet in embarrassment.

"None of that! It's Shisui-sensei from now on! And you can just call the bastard over there Itachi-teme" Shisui said with a silly grin on his face.

Itachi glared as he decked his cousin upside the head. "Idiot" He growled out as he glared at his idiotic cousin. What did he ever do to get stuck with this idiot? He really needed to start looking for another best friend soon before he lost the last shred of sanity he had left.

"Let's meet tomorrow at 5 pm in this training room okay?" Shisui asked the petal haired girl, rubbing his head in pain. Itachi really had to stop hitting him on the head, he's losing brain cells here!

"Okay!" Sakura exclaimed happily. "Good now let us walk you home! It would be ungentlemanly of us to let you walk alone!" Shisui exclaimed, grabbing hold of Sakura's arm and pulling her out of the room without hearing her consent. Itachi walked along with them as the three made their way out of the training grounds.

Sakura walked down the street with Itachi on her right and Shisui on her left.

Shisui was holding her arm with his while swinging them like a child, Itachi just walked on her right but he was so close that their hands would brush here and there.

Sakura let a smile come to her face as she talked with Shisui, Itachi joining here and there. She laughed happily, feeling more relaxed, more needed, like for the first time in all her years of living she actually belonged somewhere.

Today was the best day of her life.

* * *

Mevy: I hope that all of you enjoyed this new chapter! Aww Sakura is happier now XD

Sakura: *Blushing*

Shisui: Sakura still likes me better than this teme right Sakura *turning to Sakura*

Itachi: Hn *Also turns to Sakura*

Sakura: ummm *Sweatdrop*

Naruto: Oh hells no! Sakura was ours first *Glaring at the Uchihas*

Sasuke: Hn *Glaring at cousin and brother*

Mevy: Well this is getting complicated *giggling*

Sakura: Guys calm down now *sigh*

Kakashi: Sakura you still haven't told me how you know of Ichia Ichia paradise

Sakura: Hehe about that… Tsunade-shishou is calling for me! *Runs away*

Mevy: That will be it for today! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter also please feel free to give in suggestions or to give any helpful critisation! Thanks to all of you and till next time CX


	5. Chapter 5 Failing

Mevy: Oh god (=.=) I am sooooo sorry for not having updated sooner. My computer no longer works, so I was unable to update until a friend of mine showed me how to change the settings to be able to update via phone. Unfortunately I am a horrible texter, so I apologize in advance for the horrible typos ahead, you have been warned. ㈴9

Sasuke: You really are an idiot ㈵0

Sakura: That's not nice Sasuke ㈵1

Mevy: (Hugs Sakura) Saku-chan you're soo nice ㈳8

Shisui: So on with the torture?

Mevy: All of you guys are bullies ㈷5㈵1㈷7

Gaara: (Sighed) Can we just get this over with ㈵0

Mevy: No need to be so grumpy Panda-kun, you will make an appearance soon

Itachi: Hn, just start the story (-/_\\-)

Mevy: Your wish is my command Weasel-kun ㈵7 Pineapple-senpai disclaimer please

Shikamaru: Troublesome (sigh) Mevy does not own Naruto or its characters

Mevy: Now for the reviews ㈳3

* * *

TheSecretNames: Thank you for the review, yes that was a mistake in my part, sorry for that my phone automatically believes that I was saying Sasuke and auto corrected it but I got it fixed, thank you again and hope you like this new update ㈳3

Nedrag94: Thank you for your nice review ㈴1I hope you enjoy this new chapter

Guest: Umm I am unsure what you mean by 'a' but still thank you for your review, I also hope you enjoy this new chapter ㈴2

LadyCalus: Yeah sorry that was a typo, thank you for pointing it out though and I was able to get it fixed, thank you for your kind review and I hope that you enjoy this new update ㈳5

Ann: Yes I'm sorry for the typo, I was able to get it fixed, thank you though for telling me and I hope you can enjoy this new update ㈳6

NihilSanLabora: Yeah sorry, I'm not the greatest in grammar or spelling and I'm sorry for the typos, I got some of them fixed specifically the 'Sasuke' problem but thank you for informing me ㈳5

TenebrisDecora: Thank you ㈴2 I am so happy for your positive review and I hopy that you can enjoy this new chapter

DiffrentandLonely-girl: Thank you for the kind review and I really hope that you can enjoy this new chapter ㈵8

Xx Onyx Pearl xX: Thank you so much for your review and I am soo happy that you enjoyed the last chapter, I hope you also like this new chapter ㈶0

Guest: I'm soo happy that you enjoyed the last chapter and Happy late B-day! Sorry I wasn't able to congratulate you on that exact day but still I just needed to say it ㇳ3 Anywayz I also love nature which was what inspired me for this story really, again thank you for your kind review and I hope you enjoy this new chapter ㈵6

Nervousdreamwriter19: Thank you for your review and I am soo happy that you liked the last chapter, I also hope that you can enjoy this new chapter and I'm also so very happy that you like this story so far ㈴2

Hanntran: Thank you for the review and I am so happy that you enjoy this story so far, the reactions you will have to wait for a bit but let's just say am can't wait for the grand revelation (giggling) anywayz hope you enjoy this chapter ㈳3

Guest: I'm sooo happy that you are enjoying the story so far, it really makes me happy to be writting this story, I hope you enjoy this chapter ㈵7

Guest: Lol then let's say you will particularly enjoy this chapter ㈴2 Hope you enjoy and thank you for your review~

KingCrab-5D's-RivalGIII: Thank you for the review ㈴7 I hope you can also enjoy this new chapter XD

Sunny ver 2.0:: I'm sooo happy that you are enjoying this story so far, Sakura's new technique will be dwelled upon in later chapters but I am soo happy you like the concept

Guest: I'm soo happy that you enjoy this story so far and I will be sure to write more soon, I also hope you enjoy this new update ㈴1

Nakamura1miu: Thank you soo much for your kind review and I hope that you can enjoy this new update ㈳8

Deathr0ses: Thank you for your review, i am soo happy you are enjoying this story so far and I hope that you like this new update ㈴2

BiteMedoll: I am so grateful that you like how I decided to develope Sakura, I was slightly worried that I might have made her a bit too OCC but hopefully I will not change Sakura into too much of a stranger Thank you for your Review ㈵7

Sarah885: I'm happy to hear that you are enjoying the story so far, the revelation scene is close upon us so you guys will soon be able to see Team 7's reaction to Sakura's new _friends ㈴1_

Aheartwithglass: I'm happy to know that you are liking the story so far, I am sorry for the late update and please enjoy the chapter ㈳8

Rosega: Thank you soo much for your kind review ㈴2 I am happy that you enjoy how the story is going too far and I hope you continue to read it ㈅9

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Thank you all for reviewing, When I logged in one day and saw how many reviews there where it would be an understatement to say I was shocked

Sasuke: She Hyperventilated then fainted like a wuss

Shut up! Anyways thank you all for your support I am soo grateful to have you and I hope you will continue to be there for the continuation of this story T.T XD

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 _I'm free now,_

 _Yet I still feel caged._

 _Memories of the pass torment me,_

 _As actions from the present drown me._

 _Are you the one holding me?_

 _Or is it my imagination all over again._

 _Because the more a move forward,_

 _The further in the past I will travel._

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The next day Sakura woke up at the unholy hour of 5 in the morning, she had a hospital shift from 7am-11pm and then she had a Team meeting at 1 pm but knowing Kakashi it will most likely be at 2 pm which usually ended at 4 or 5 seeing as that they usuallu just trained.

Sighing Sakura suddenly perked up, at 5 pm she will be meeting Itachi and Shisui, her new teachers. At the thought of them being her teachers Sakura's stomach did flip flops as her heart practically exploded with happiness.

Going to the bathroom and doing her usual morning rituals, Sakura quickly finished brushing her hair before coming back into her room. She really needed to buy new training clothes, one to wear every day was not the brightest of ideas. Sighing Sakura braided her hair, only letting her bangs lose.

It was starting to get cold in the later days of September and so Sakura decided not to wear her short sleeve shirt and shorts anymore. Her hair was also starting to get in the way of her training, she wondered internally why she hadn't thought of braiding it before but decided that the reasoning was really of no importance.

Instead she headed to her closet, sighing impatiently at the mess she had made the time she was looking for more...professional clothing. She grabbed her black long sleeve kimono shirt, upon further inspection Sakura found small holes that were actuslly pockets in whivh she could hide some senbon on her back and sleeves. Grinning Sakura went to her weapon pouch and got out some senbon from her small supply, making a mental note to practice more with said projectiles.

She looked around her closet until she was able to find a black undershirt to wear under the kimono shirt, putting the thin yet tight material on, Sakura then proceeded to put in the senbon in the small pockets.

Putting on the shirt, Sakura admired the vine stitches that acted as a borderline for the shirt as a small smile displayed on her lips. The shirt looked to be made from sturdy material and fit snugly on her, letting her conserve some heat in this colder weather. It was warm, the black coloring attracted heat as she expected. After admiring the shirt a bit more she then discarded her pajama pants as she put on the black pants that seemed to match the kimono shirt perfectly.

The pants were also made of sturdy material and the vines sewed looked like actual vines were wrapping around her legs. They were easy to move in and quite warm as well. Nodding in accomplishment Sakura strapped on her weapon pouch on her right thigh before heading out of her room and into the kitchen.

Quickly grabbing some dangos from the fridge she put them in the microwave and put the time needed to heat them so that they would be nice and chewy. Grabbing a teapot the pinkette poured some water and heated it on the stove. To others it might be too early for dangos as they were usually eaten as an afternoon snack, but for her it was never too early or too late for the sweet treats.

' **Dango is the food for the Gods!'**

' _Now you just sound like Naruto when he goes off about his precious ramen.'_ Sakura thought back to her childish Inner with a role of her eyes.

' **Compared to Dango, Ramen is trash food!'** Inner exclaimed back with a humph, arms crossed with a scowl on her face. She was never one to back down from an argument, especially one that concerned her precious food.

' _Yeah yeah whatever you say Inner,'_ With that Sakura heard the pot whistle meaning the tea was done. Grabbing a towel Sakura carefully put the pot away from the fire as she placed it on the counter.

Taking out a teapot Sakura put in the tea leaves in the pot before pouring the hot water and heading to the microwave were the dango had finished warming. Taking them out Sakura placed five dango sticks on a plate.

Walking over to the table she placed the plate with dango on the small table in the kitchen. Looking around Sakura sighed as she closed her eyes, imagining her mother walking around the kitchen humming a soft tune as she fixed the pinkette her favorite treat.

She could still remember when her mother laughed a bell like sound as she said that she had quite an appetite when Sakura would scarf down countless sticks of dangos and still ask for more. She could also remember her mother's warm eyes as she said that she loved dangos just like her father, then her gaze would turn into a bitter sweet look.

As a young child Sakura would smile brightly and proclaim that her mother's cooking was the best in the whole entire universe and there was not one thing that she did not like that was made from her hand, except for spicy stuff she would then confess.

Sakura and her parents used to live in a bigger apartment with four rooms, it had been quite big but she could not remember it because after her Father's death her Mother had moved to another apartment, this one. This apartment was only a three room apartment with a living room and a kitchen divided by a wall, then there was her own room and where her mother's room used to be in as well as a bathroom in the middle of both rooms.

After her Mother's death due to a disease nobody knew of, Sakura had enough money from her Mother's savings to keep the apartment, she also got support because of her decision to become a shinobi and attend the Academy, which made it so that she was slightly supported by the Hokage/Council in a program that supported orphaned students who will attend the Academy and become shinobi in the future.

That along with the money given to her by her new guardian made it possible for her to be able to keep the apartment, later she was able to pay the bills herself after becoming a Genin though the currency from mission and then later on though working part time in the hospital.

Sakura worked hard to be able to succeed in the Academy, she got the highest grades and was first in all academics coming second to only one Nara Shikamaru when he actually bothered to try. Although she was not the greatest in the physical prospect, barely average when the tests were made, she was an above average in her intellect which helped her in the support she needed.

After becoming Genin Sakura no longer had the support from the Council or Hokage so she had to work hard in earning her keep through the various D-ranked missions which only barely managed to pay her bills. Sakura had to depend dearly on her guardian who made sure to help her in paying the bills, something she did not enjoy seeing as that she hated being a burden. Her salvation came when she became the apprentice of Tsunade, who came in around two months after she graduated the Academy.

With her work in the Hospital and the various missions she did, some including C-ranked missions that gave her a little more than D-ranks ever did, she was more better in paying her bills and started leaving a slightly less stressful life that came when living alone.

While Sakura wasn't really rich, she was living well and had a little more extra change thanks to working in the Hospital which brought quite a bit of money home. Talking about the Hospital Sakura was going to be late if she didn't hurry up!

Seeing as that enough time passed for the water to have mixed well with the leaves Sakura poured herself a cup of green tea before making her way to the table. Eating the sweet Mitarashi dango Sakura finished the five sticks filled with three dangos in record time before chugging down the green tea.

Throwing away the sticks after having licked the sweet syrup left on them Sakura put the dirty dish and cup in the sink to wash later before practically running at the door, grabbing the keys from the table that also held the picture of her parents holding her. Stopping abrutely Sakura smiled sadly at the photo.

"I'm off Mother, Father" Going to the door Sakura sat on the steps as she quickly put on her ninja sandals before walking up to the door and opening it. She was met with the hallway of the apartment building as she practically ran through the hallway down the stair and out the door. Quickly running through Konoha the young teen thanked Kami above that the apartment building she lived in was close to the Hospital.

She made it inside the Hospital, and with time to spare at that. Quickly getting the nurse uniform Tsunade had given her Sakura's nose wrinkled. She did not like the uniform given to her at all, it was some sort of white dress that came with it's own nurse hat.

Huffing Sakura grudgingly put it on, she could not wait for her status to increase in the hospital, or at least for her status as a med-nin to be more prominent, then maybe she could wear something other than this skimpy dress, no offence to the other nurses wearing this get up.

Huffing once more Sakura tried to lower the bottom part a little more, but it would not go lower than a few inches away from her knee. She could still remember the time Naruto first saw her in this outfit, he had a nosebleed and his mind went directly to the gutter. He was really spending too much time with Jiraiya.

Soon though, Tsunade will finally change her position to a medic than a nurse, if she managed to learn a few more medical ninjutsus as well as pass her lesson on poisons from Shizune, after that she will officially become a medic and no longer will have to do the awkward duties of a shinobi nurse.

Sighing Sakura wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and bury herself in it, the only times she did not have to wear this outfit was when there was an emergency and she came here in short notice. Gathering her bearings Sakura went to the checkout desk, thanking kami above that not many of her friends ever saw her in the outfit.

"Good morning Kasumi-san," Sakura greeted the nurse seated on the chair behind the desk. "Sakura-chan! How many times have I told you to call me Ami, seriously" Ami, one of the nurses Sakura has gotten acquaintance in her time as a medic (nurse), told her with a teasing tone of voice.

"Of course, so Ami-san could you please give me my schedule for today?" Sakura asked the nurse with her usual polite smiles. Giving a smile back Ami shuffled some papers as she got out a clipboard which held a rubric with the name 'Sakura Haruno' written on top.

"Here you go sweety," Ami said to the pinkette as Sakura bowed her head in thanks. "Thanks Ami-san," Sakura thanked the brown haired woman as she left to do what was told in the rubric.

By the end of her shift Sakura had healed two kids who had accidentally tripped when playing in the playground and had gotten pretty scratched up, three check ups with ninjas who had to have their monthly check ups and three sessions in helping doctors in healing badly injured patients.

Walking to her office Sakura put away her uniform as she put on her ninja clothes along with her pouch and headed out of the Hospital.

-O.o.O-

Sakura was sitting in the library, a major headache making its way to her skull. She had been researching about ninja with a nature affinity, but all she could find were books upon books of the Wood release ninjutsu from the first Hokage Hashirama Senju, which was close but not really completely what she believed her ability was. It was also impossible for whatever she had to be Wood release because, as the book states, only Hashirama-sama could ever use the technique, and from what she knew Tsunade was his only living relative and yet even she couldn't use the kekkei Genkai.

Feeling a migraine form Sakura bumped her head on the desk, she really needed to rest for a bit, maybe deal with this tomorrow or something. Shaking the thoughts away Sakura looked over at the clock, she had exactly 1 hour before she had to go to the training field to meet up with her team, sighing Sakura went back to reading.

 _Wood release is a nature transformation_ _kekkei genkai that originates from the Senju clan, it is a technique that mixes earth-based chakra on one hand and water-based chakra on the other-_

' _Huh, funny my chakra nature is also Earth, maybe if we-'_

' **Don't start on thinking of ways to get us killed, just keep reading you suicidal idiot.'**

' _Fine fine sheesh,'_ Sakura rolled her eyes at her Inner as she turned her attention back on the book she was reading.

 _to create wood as well as various plants, from simple seeds to even flowering trees. Wood and plants can be produced from any surface, including the user's own body, as the user's chakra is literally converted into a source of life._

' _I wonder who was the one who gave all this information,'_ She wondered to herself, true this was part of the restricted sections of the library, but even then it was hard to believe Konoha held this information at hand. The again we were talking about the founder of the village, it would be strange that the village didn't have the simple facts of it.

' **Stick to the topic at hand,'** Inner shot back irritatedly, looking quite pissed.

' _Fine! let's see...'_ Sakura read over the words she had read from the text of the book.

So to be able to perform Wood release a user must mix earth-based chakra with water-based chakra, Sakura had never heard of something like that being done in this era. Looking over at the other books she looked for anything more helpful.

Suddenly, Sakura found a notebook that she had gotten from the more restricted areas. Tsunade had told her to search as much as she could about her abnormal affinity and so she gave her permission to continue her search in more restricted sections, the only step back was that she could not take any of the books outside of the library and she had to read all of them in the back of the library. She also had to sign in every book she took out, for security reasons. Tsunade had given her yet another tatoo like mark but this time it was on her other palm, it was the kanji for 'knowledge' along with a circle around it, but she could also feel Tsunade's chakra pulsing slightly from the mark.

Sighing Sakura opened the small notebook, she was met with the neat hand writing of the person that had written on it.

' _Wonder who wrote this,'_ Sakura wondered to herself, paying close attention to the neat characters. The writing was small, almost as if to conserve the amount of space the notebook had as almost every white space was filled with writing.

' **No idea, now read!'** Her ever obnoxious Inner demanded of her.

' _Fine fine, don't blow a blood vessel over it.'_

As Sakura read, she found that it was a journal talking about a woman's journey through the great Nations, it seems like nothing written here was what she was looking for. Sure, this woman learned about many cool jutsus and all, but she didn't find anything that Sakura was interested in. Yet Sakura kept reading, she liked to read about the many places this woman had visited and all the cultures she experienced in each village. The dates set back to around 30-40 years ago making everything written there slightly outdated, especially some of the information on the leaders of each village.

Suddenly Sakura found it, something that she had been looking for.

 _As I walked through a dense forest I looked around the dense canopu of trees, looking for a place where I could camp out. Hearing a noise, I brushed it off as a woodland creature walking around. Suddenly I heard the distinctive noise of someone moving around, yelling out different techniques I was not familiar with. Walking further into the forest I saw the shape of a boy, he seems to be moving around in graceful ways as his cl-_

Sakura could not make out any of the details about said boy as the page seemed to smear a bit, while this book was not that old many of the pages were smeared from both the ink and dirt. Skipping over it Sakura continued reading.

 _He was doing moves I have never seen in any of my adventures, they were almost like one of the grass nin was doing but almost different, it was almost like plant life itself was moving on with him as-_

Sakura made a sound of despair at the sight in front of her, the page seem to have ripped and the part after that was not there. flipping over the pages Sakura was met with writing, but about her next journey to a village that was close to stone, not mentioning anything about the boy or what she saw. She wanted to cry, finally a lead and it was a dead-end.

Sighing, she looked over at the clock, at the sight of the time she fell off her chair.

' _Damn it I'm late!'_

Hurrying, Sakura quickly put the books were they belonged, giving the restricted books over to the librarian so she could check them in and showing her palm as she bit her thumb and smeared blood on the sheet where she signed in the books from the restricted area.

Smiling at the nice old librarian Sakura bowed in thanks before leaving, she took the roof tops for faster passage as she ran to training ground 7. Unlike the training rooms Sakura visited, the training grounds were made for genin teams and some for chunin teams, the training rooms where she visited instead were meant for chunin and higher. Though they weren't really rooms to begin with, they were training grounds as well, though a few were slightly smaller and more closed off.

Sakura made it to the training grounds and just in time, only Sasuke and Naruto were present with Kakashi nowhere to be seen. Sighing Sakura stopped in front of the boys and fell over on her behind.

"Sakura-chan! You're late!" Naruto yelled at her, looking quite shocked at the girl who was always early being late for once, even if their teacher was not here yet. "Don't tell me Kakashi's tardiness is rubbing off on you!" Naruto exclaimed in horror.

"Sorry, I needed to do something for Shishou and lost track of time," Sakura explained, giving them a smile. She was tired from the long run, and jumping rooftops took way more energy than simply running down the streets, but it was way faster without having the risk of trampling over a civilian.

"Hn," Sasuke his ever stoic self said, though Sakura could make out a small bit of irritation which was visible in his eyes. Huffing Sakura stood up, though with great effort, and sat over to a close tree, going to her meditating state.

She was starting to get addicted from this, and she knew it. Spreading her chakra out Sakura was happy to see that her chakra reserves had grown relatively bigger than the pitiful amount it was back then. Smiling Sakura filled every single plant life she could feel with her chakra, the result was chaotic.

It was as if the plant's chakra was fighting for her attention as her chakra was pulled in multiple directions. Sakura felt a migraine coming as she tried to calm down the plants' chakra but failed. Right when she felt she was going to explode another chakra made itself known as its chakra spiked. Her concentration vanished as her chakra was pulled in her body, not so gently mind you.

Yelping Sakura's eyes snapped opened as she took in the view of the curious looking males of Team 7, Kakashi standing intimately close to her. Blushing Sakura gave another yelp as she brought her head back, making the back of her head hit the tree, hard.

Groaning Sakura rubbed her sore spot as she caught the sight of Kakashi's amused gaze. Glaring Sakura got up as her hand glowed green with healing chakra as Sakura healed her sore spot, though relatively slowly seeing as her concentration was not all there.

"You know it's not nice to sneak up on people like that," Sakura said as she inwardly tried to calm down and fix her chaotic chakra, seems like being snapped back into her body like that caused it to get slightly tangled and unstable.

Finally calming her chakra and fixing her coils Sakura put her whole attention on Kakashi. "I tried calling your name a couple of times but you didn't seem to listen." He said, his voice laced with humor as his eyes looked questionably at her.

"Oh" now Sakura was feeling stupid, a blush made its way to her cheeks as she fumbled with her thumbs. "I'm sorry, I guess I was not paying attention. So what will we be doing for today?" Sakura said quickly, trying to change subjects.

"Today we will be training." The minute he said that Sasuke and Naruto got in position for a spar. Not minding as she would have back then Sakura got back into a meditating pose. She could use this time to try and see if she could infuse her chakra into the dirt, true it was cool how she could infuse it with trees and grass to pinpoint an enemy, but infusing it with the ground and dirt will make it so that she could practically always pinpoint an enemy, as long as they are in the ground that is.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Kakashi questioned her, looking at her direction. "Meditating" She responded as she let out a trickle of her chakra out, she tried in vain to infuse it to the earth as her chakra just seemed to stay there, not giving her any input.

Giving a sigh, Sakura moved her chakra around but found it quite hard, giving up Sakura got her chakra out of the earth. She really needed to find a way to have the earth give her input like the plants seemed to do. She covered the grass around her with chakra as she felt its chakra seemingly pulling to her.

Feeling at peace Sakura went into a sleep like state, feeling the small yet comforting presence of the grass around her. Suddenly Sakura's eyes widened as the grass seemed to spike slightly.

And for good measures, Sakura saw Naruto being pushed away from Sasuke and going directly at her in blinding speed. Eyes widening Sakura reflexively put her chakra around her as she sent it towards the tree behind her in panic.

The tree's chakra seemed to flash as Sakura closed her eyes waiting to be hit by the closing body of Naruto, she then felt herself be pulled back by an invisible force as she stayed there for a moment, upon feeling the world around her slightly shake but no hurting Sakura opened her eyes. She was met with the sight of a slightly small Sasuke making his way to where she was at.

Looking down she saw the figure of Naruto who was sitting on the ground rubbing his head.

' _What the hell'_ Sakura looked around her and saw only air, looking down she also saw that her feet were not touching touching the ground. Eyes widening Sakura saw bark under her body as she found her back stuck to the tree.

Spreading her chakra to the tree, what she saw made her eyes widen to dinner plates. The chakra of the tree was holding her almost as if sticking her to its trunk, it was not her own chakra that had stuck her to the tree but the tree's own chakra.

Looking down Sakura saw Naruto looking up. "Sakura-chan! How did you get all the way up there!?" Sakura understood what he meant, she was way up high in the tree without any hand signs or using chakra induced feet.

Looking down Sakura had no idea how to make the tree let go of her, wow that was a weird thing to think. Experimenting Sakura let out her chakra and soothed the tree, mentally saying 'I'm safe now'. Almost as if the tree understood the message it let her go, Sakura felt herself falling as she mentally panicked. Shifting herself so that her feet were facing the bark Sakura was about to call on her chakra but it was not needed.

Almost as if the tree once more knew she was in danger it's chakra seems to hold out to her and grab her, sticking her feet to the bark.

' _This is something I will have to experiment with,_ ' Sakura thought mentally, looking in wonder as her feet stuck to the tree without her own chakra needed. Sakura though, did not know how to make it so that she could walk down the tree with its chakra holding her like that.

Calling on her own chakra, Sakura soothed the tree's own chakra once more as she attached herself to it with her own chakra. Walking down Sakura was met with the sight of her teammates.

"How is it that you were able to stick to the tree when Naruto came at you in such speed," Kakashi was the one who broke the silence, looking at her quizzically.

Laughing Sakura rubbed the back of her head. "Ummm, I have no idea, I guess it was reflex." Sakura said, half truthfully. The boys seemed to not want the subject to drop but one look from Kakashi sent them off to finish their spar.

' **You know we should tell someone about thi** **s'** Inner told Sakura, looking at her expectantly.

' _You're right...I'll tell Itachi and Shisui, they already know that my chakra nature affinity is earth, or something like that, is it really Nature Inner?"_

' **I...have no idea,'** Inner told Sakura, sticking her tongue out with a wink. Sakura felt her insides boil as she glared outwardly.

"Your useless!" Sakura screamed out loud, enraged at her Inner self's childishness.

"Sakura...?" Kakashi looked at her with a sweatdrop, wondering why she burst out like that. Sakura turned deathly pale, she didn't mean to say that outloud!

' **Idiot, just say something and lie.'**

Sighing Sakura did as Inner told her. "Sorry, I was just remember that I had to give Tsunade-shishou files of a patient earlier this morning. She's going to be pissed tomorrow." Sakura said in an apologetic voice, looking at Kakashi with a smile yet forcing herself to seem nervous. Suddenly she saw the position of the sun, it seemed like it was around 4:40 right now.

"Ummm, Kakashi-sensei isn't it about time to leave?" Sakura asked tge silver haired jonin, she really wanted to get to the training grounds to meditate and replenish her chakra before meeting up with Itachi and Shisui.

"What, do you have something else for Hokage-sama to do?" Kakashi questioned her. Sakura nodded as she looked away. She didn't want anyone to know about her two new teachers till later on, after she learns at least one technique from them.

"Okay, anyways it's almost 5 now. I'll dismiss the boys when they finish their spar, I'll see you tomorrow Sakura. Also, good luck with the Hokage." Her sensei said, though he looked slightly suspiciously at her. Sakura brushed it off as she smiled at him before leaving to the direction of the other training fields.

Running with chakra enhanced speed Sakura made it there in 10 minutes as she quickly signed herself in before walking into her usual training grounds. Meditating and replenishing her chakra reserves Sakura stayed like that for another 10 minutes before quickly going to training grounds E-5.

Upon stepping foot in there Sakura was met with the sound of kunai clashing and someone gruffing. Looking around Sakura was met with the sight of Shisui and Itachi soaring.

Sakura carefully walked in and sat next to a tree close to the entrance. Looking at the spar Sakura was entranced as they moved gracefully blocking each other's strikes as they fought with one another.

They didn't seem to pay attention at her presence as they fought with each other while at the same time moving away from the room's weapons. Sakura watched in amazement as Itachi flung a kunai at Shisui as he jumped away from an explosion in the branch he had been standing on.

Sakura watched carefully as Shusui dodge the kunai headed to him from Itach,i but it was meant as a distraction as multiple shuriken were sent his way from the room, he managed to dodge all of them but was nicked slightly by the last one on his face.

' **Oh darn, that better not scar! That face is too pretty to scar at all!'** Inner complained, the ever present pervert.

Completely ignoring her Inner, Sakura watched as both of them took out their swords as they exchanged strikes while dodging kunais that were sent their way. Shisui performed a perfect back flip to prevent being hit by a kunai headed his way but was too slow to dodge a strike from Itachi's sword.

He was slashed from his torso as Sakura saw blood building up on his shirt, though it was barely visible through the dark material. Itachi though, didn't come out unscratched, Shisui at the same time swiped at him which made Itachi get a nice size cut on his left arm going from his elbow to his palm.

Both breathing hard, they relaxed their postures as they released the chakra on the mark around their wrists. The mark disappeared putting the room back into its dormant state.

"That was AMAZING!" Sakura couldn't help but exclaim as she practically ran up to the two men.

"Strawberry! You came!" Shisui said happily as he hugged her but regretted it as his wound aggravated in pain. He gave a soft groan as he quickly released her, his hand automatically holding is wound.

"Shisui! You're hurt, you shouldn't move too much!" Sakura exclaimed, worry lacing her tone as she looked at the wound, she had accidentally forgotten to use the -san when saying his name but Shisui only smiled at that.

"Could you heal it Cherry?" Shisui asked the pinkette as she smiled. "Of course! Here let me see." Sakura examined his wound but then saw that the shirt was getting on the way. She blushed as she knew what had to be done.

"U-ummm...Shisui, is it okay that..um could you maybe-ah" Sakura's face burned as it's color rivaled that of a tomato's. Shisui chuckled as he took off his shirt, showing his perfectly sculpted muscles.

He was well honed but was more on the lean side, build more for speed than for brute strength. Though he did have a great shape Sakura had to admit to herself.

' **Oh mama, catch me I think I might die,'** Inner Sakura exclaimed as she had a major nosebleed, eyes practically forming into hearts. Sakura thabkfully, only had a huge blush on her face.

' _Come on you're a medic, you need to act professional.'_ Inwardly slapping herself Sakura's hands glowed green as she put it over the wound, fighting the blush that was once more trying to get on her face.

Shisui on the other hand could only smirk at the sight before him, he couldn't help but think how cute she looked with her face blushing like that. Man this was some ego boost.

Shisui looked slyly at Itachi who just glared at him. "Idiot" He heard Itachi mutter which only made him smile cheekily at him.

"Don't be shy about feeling around there Cherry" Shisui boldly said, making Sakura squeak and blush multiple shades of red.

"S-S-Shisui-san p-please don't s-say things like that, I need to concentrate" Sakura stuttered out, looking quite abashed. That only made Shisui laughed loudly as he looked at her amused.

"I was kidding" Itachi though, saw it fit to hit him on the head for his comment, quite hard really. "Stop with the jokes you idiot, you're going to scare her away" Itachi said, glaring at his cousin.

"Oh, so that means you want her around eh baby cousin." That comment only got him another hit in the head, only this time it was hard enough to make him see stars.

"Sorry sorry" Shisui groaned as he rubbed his head. Sakura giggled at their antics as she finished healing his torso. Not a single trace of a scar was visible, it had also taken less time than it had a few months ago. All those months of training were seriously paying off.

Sending her chakra into his body she healed a few more scratches and feeling sympathetic, healed his head soreness from where Itachi hit him as well as lessening his headache.

'Finished!" Sakura called out, feeling accomplished by her work. "Thanks princess" Shisui said, smiling cheekily.

"U-umm Itachi-san, may I..I mean could I….please uh" Understanding what she was saying Itachi nodded slightly. Smiling brightly Sakura went up to the Uchiha, Shisui really did some good damage on his arm. He had severed some of Itachi's veins making them un-functional.

Shisui felt his mouth hang open. He had never in all of his years seen THE Uchiha Itachi let _anyone_ heal him willingly. Many times Tsunade had to knock out the Uchiha, even tie him down or take him off the roosters to go to his monthly check ups and even then Tsunade and Shizune had to be the ones to check him, any other medic would be intimidated and made to leave with their tails between their legs.

That or they would try to rape his poor cousin.

Shisui knew that Itachi would have just bandaged the wound and hope for it to heal by their next mission, he would never willingly go to any medic, no matter how skilled, to check or heal him. His stupid Uchiha pride didn't let him do so.

And yet here he was, letting a little girl, Hokage's apprentice or not, heal him. Shisui let a sly grin pull at his lips as he shot it at itachi who only glared.

Sakura on the other hand was concentrated on the work at hand, it was a pretty bad cut and she would have to use 'healing technique' to try and reconnect the veins, she will then have to create a few more cells and connect the split skin back together.

 _rat-ram-dog!_ Sakura formed the hand signs needed before concentrating her healing chakra in a compact way in front of her making a white orb of healing chakra which little by little grew until it became as big as her palm.

Controlling the white orb Sakura carefully reconnected the veins as well as healed the skin and created new cells. After around 3 minutes she finished.

Itachi looked at his arms as he moved it around, other than the light soreness it worked perfectly well and there was barely a mark left from her healing. For a rookie Sakura did a pretty great job, Itachi nodded his head in thanks as Sakura smiled widely.

"So cupcake, what can you do with you Nature affinity?" Shisui asked, finally putting his shirt back on, though it was ripped and bloody it was better than walking around shirtless. "Um, about that...I have never heard of anyone with an affinity with 'Nature' shouldn't it be earth affinity?" Sakura questioned the older Uchiha.

"Yeah but you are different Sakura-chan, you might have an affinity with Earth but the way you are able to actually infuse your chakra with plant life itself, it's unheard of" Shisui said with a smile on his face. Sakura nodded but then remembered what she was going to tell them.

"About that, when I was in the training grounds with my Team I had been meditating. My teammate was then going to crash into me due to him having a spar with my other teammate when suddenly I found myself with my back stuck on the trunk of a tree. When I tried to move the tree wouldn't let me, it's chakra was holding me steady on its bark. I soothed it with my own chakra making it let me go but when it did let me go I fell down, the tree's chakra again grabbed onto me but this time from my feet and kept me upright."

The two Uchihas both had thinking faces on as they mentally went over what Sakura had told them. Shisui was the first to break it as he smiled widely, "That's sooo cool princess, could you try to do it now?" Itachi also nodded, his face betraying nothing.

"Ummm could we go to my usual training grounds, I like training there more than here" Sakura asked, looking embarrassed at the two Uchihas.

"Sure, let's go Cutie," Shisui said happily as he grabbed Sakura's left hand, telling her to show them the way.

Itachi appeared on the right of her as she walked to the direction of the training ground she usually trained in. "Wow you're right, this place is cool, and has tons of trees" Shisui said looking around, he could spot a few shuriken here and there and some targets laying around.

"You come here a lot?" Shisui asked the pinkette who nodded, smiling brightly as she closed her eyes. The two Uchihas could see just how much more happier and relaxed she looked being here, she really did have a strong connection with the Nature around her.

"Show us how you were able to stick to the tree" Itachi suddenly said, snapping Sakura out of her trance. Smiling in apology as embarrassment seep into her she nodded before stepping up to a tree.

Closing her eyes Sakura let the small amount of chakra she still had seep out of her body, enveloping the trunk slightly Sakura started nudge at it's own chakra while she embraced its chakra with her own. The tree was only too happy to return her nudges, embracing her own chakra as it's chakra enveloped hers.

Stepping up the tree with the small amount of chakra she had left Sakura walked up the tree. Suddenly her chakra gave out as she let out a small squeak as she fell from the top tree. This was not what she was going to do, she was going to walk up to the branch and see if the tree would respond back to her but she had greatly overestimated the amount of chakra she actually had left.

Itachi and Shisui were both about to catch her but before they could something happened. Sakura's last amount of chakra thrashed wildly as the tree's chakra seemed to hear her calling. Its own chakra seems to enveloped her as it pulled her to it's trunk. Sakura sighed, never has she been so happy to be stuck on something.

"Princess are you okay?" Shisui questioned her as he looked up at where she was currently sticking on the side of the tree. "Yes I'm fine Shisui" Sakura answered as she looked at her predicament. Good news were that she had not fallen to her death, bad news was that she was out of chakra.

"I'm feeling...a little…..drowsy" Sakura mumbled as she felt black enter her vision. She tried in vain to stay awake as Chakra exhaustion beat at her with vengeance. She really should have at least eaten a chakra replenishing pill or meditated before trying this, she did not measure the amount of chakra she had actually used to heal both Itachi and Shisui.

"Princess…" But anything that Shisui would have said was lost to Sakura as she fell in the world of unconsciousness. Soothed by the tree's chakra around her, Sakura felt herself be pulled into the darkness and she did not have the strength to fight it.

' _ **You are going to be the end of us**_ **'** Was the last thing she heard in her mind before everything went black.

-O.o.O-

Mevy: Well that's that, bet you're all wondering what's going to happen to Sakura now ㈴7

Sakura: Are you fucking obsessed with writing character fainting scenes or something. I mean really? ㈵0

Shisui: I don't blame her, youmake the cutest of faces when asleep ㈵7

Itachi: (Hits Shisui over the head) Idiot ㈷1

Mevy: And jealousy strikes again ㈳3

Sasuke: How many times are you going to keep saying that? It's getting old you know ㈴9

Mevy: Oh shut up chicken butt ㈶7

Temari: I'm just going to end this now, review please, the author adores them to bits ㈸6


	6. Chapter 6 Weak

**Mevy** : Hahaha, well this took longer than expected to update

 **Sakura** : -.- Mevy, I believe it has been a year or so

 **Mevy** : Now don't exaggerate! Haha anywayz….

 **Naruto** : How come Sakura-chan is spending more time with the Teme's family than us now!

 **Shisui:** Because we are cooler than you of course

 **Itachi** : Hn

 **Mevy** : Ugh, well I know that this came a little

 **Sasuke** : A little?

 **Mevy** : Shut ya trap you idiotic chicken-ass before I fry you into chicken legs

 **Sasuke** : …..

 **Mevy** : Anywho I present Chapter 6 to ya, oh and I might make some changes to past chapters because I've been getting some complaints haha, so I'll inform you of any changes if I do make them, but no worries they will be minimal and won't impact the story as a whole.

 **Hinata** : M-m-mevy do-doesn't own Na-ruto o-or any o-of the cha-characters us-used!

 **Mevy** : That was great! Now to the reviews!

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 **AngleKitsune66** : Haha what you say is true dear sister of mine, lol, but this is an AU, so it doesn't follow the events of the manga. In this story the Uchiha massacre never happens, Shisui is alive and kicking, and my cutie Itachi is still in Konoha. Thank you so much for reviowing and please enjoy this chapter.

 **Hotdragon95** : Happy you like how Shisui came out, the anime or manga doesn't depict him all that well, so I followed what Itachi had said about his charismatic attitude as well as some fanfiction I had read in the past and based his actions off of those. An intelligent prodigy with a happy-go-lucky attitude akin to Naruto and a serious contrast personality when need be. Thank you for reviowing and I hope that you enjoy this chapter

 **Emzy2k11** : I apologise for updating so late, school, life, programs, and just pure writer's block. I just couldn't seem to be able to proof-read this right, even now this is not my most favorite chapter, I feel like it's missing something lol. Anyways I hope that you enjoy and thank you for reviewing.

 **Nedrag94** : I am truly grateful that you enjoyed the last chapter. I personally felt it was quite rushed, and I still have a lot to learn as a writer, but knowing that I was able to entertain even just one person is enough to satisfy me. THank you for reviewing and I hope that you find this chapter equally and enjoyable.

 **Guest** : I apologise for the delay, I am quite thankful that you like this story enough to want more, please enjoy this chapter and thank you for reviewing.

 **Twisted Musalih** : I am happy that you are enjoying the story so far, I hope you like this new chapter. THank you for reviewing!

 **Ester Izanami - Daia-chan** : Me alegra mucho que estás disfrutando la historia. Mis disculpas si mi español no es el mejor, pero aún así gracias por comentar y por favor disfruta este nuevo capítulo

 **Mysti13** : Thank you so much for reviewing. I was told of the room of death by a friend of mine, though I was unsure for the story from where it came from. Thank you so much for commenting on it, though I might have to cut it out of the story for it might cause further trouble through the act of copying, I had asked the arthur over it but have not gotten a response haha. Anywho, I am eternally grateful over you pointing out the mistakes I have made, I am not the greatest in grammar and tend to mistake meanings of words at times, so I am really happy that you took time in pointing out the mistakes I have made. Thank you again and I hope that you enjoy the next chapter.

 **Stellarwitch** : I am happy that you are enjoying the chapter so far haha, I really hope that you enjoy this new chapter. Thank you for reviewing!

 **Bloodmoon Goddess:** Haha, I will not lie, I thought of Sasuke when I read this. I apologise for the delay, school, life, pure excuses pouting out right now. I am not the greatest at frequent updates, especially now that I am writing 16 stories that I have yet to actually publish here, but I will try to keep most of my focus on this fic. I am happy that you are enjoying this story so far, thank you so much for reviewing.

 **Loveitasakuxx :** All will be revealed soon enough, haha. This are quite good question, most of which will in fact be answered as the fic goes on. I am happy that you are really getting into the storyline and quite thankful that you have reviewed. Hope that you enjoy this chapter!

 **Teyona :** I am soo happy that you are enjoying it so far. I based most of their interactions on Sasuke and Naruto with a hint of how me and my friend usually interact with each other. The anime or manga didn't really show much of how they interacted, all I could get from wiki was that Itachi saw Shisui as an older brother and someone he admired. Yet I could see Shisui annoying the hell out of Itachi with his charisma, so that's how I made their relationship to be, ya know to make it more fun and entertaining to read.

 **daliapv perez : **El elemento que tiene Sakura va a hacer explicado después en la historia jaja,(lo siento por mi mala escritura de espanol) Estoy bien feliz que te gusta la historia y espero que te guste este capitulo, y tambien gracias por dejar un comento!

 **Xx Onyx Pearl xX:** I'm soo happy that you are enjoying this story so far. I always enjoyed nature, and my favorite powers were that of flame or nature lol Sakura's powers were actually based on the story "The immortals: Wild Magic' were the main character has a connection with animals. You will see this come to play in a later chapter of this story, one which I quite enjoyed writing. Thankfully I recently got a new laptop, so I will be able to update more frequently if time permits, in other words if the teachers ever stop trying to kill us with homework haha. Thank you so much for reviewing and please enjoy this chapter

 **Nervousdreamwriter19** : I am not that evil, thankfully Itachi was here for the rescue, you will see this in the chapter. I am happy that I was able to make Shisui and Itachi's relationship entertaining, having based it off of both Naruto and Sasuke's interactions as well as how me and my close friend interact with one another. Also, Sakura will continue to grow throughout the story, she can't stay weak and dependent forever right? Let's just say I am looking forward to the 15 year old Sakura. Please enjoy this new chapter and thank you so very much for reviewing.

 **Guest** : I am so sorry for the wait, I am still working on becoming a more frequent updater haha. I might just shrink the chapters a bit, but I am unsure seeing as that the chapters are short as is. Thank you for reviewing and please enjoy this new chapter

 **Guest** : Yes, I have been getting quite a bit of PM's saying so. After checking out the story I do agree they are too similar, so I am planning on changing some minor details that are too akin to the other story so that they are no longer too similar to one another because every story should be unique right? Anywayz thank you so much for reviewing and please enjoy this new chapter

 **Ael24strawberry** : I am so happy that you enjoy this chapter, though I have to say the true plot is far from being revealed, this is mainly just the introduction of the story. Little warning, I am a huge fan of plot twists haha Thank you for reviewing and please enjoy this new chapter!

 **Naomipy** : I am happy that you are enjoying the story thus far, I am also really thankful that you took time to review. I hope that you enjoy the new chapter.

 **Guest** : I am soo happy that you like it, thank you so much for reviewing and please enjoy this chapter.

 **AlliXCane** : I am so sorry for updating late, let's just say I am horrible at managing my time. Anywayz I hope that you enjoy this new update just as much and thank you so very much for your review.

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 **Mevy** : I cannot believe how many people have reviewed this time, thank you so much for your support. It is thanks to you guys that I have the passion of continuing this story and my desire to write. I apologise once more for the delay and hope that you enjoy this new chapter.

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Green eyes blinked to existence as Sakura groggily woke up from unconsciousness. "Princess!" She vaguely heard a voice call to her as Sakura looked at the direction the voice came from. Black hair came to her line of vision, followed by a pretty face, and finally black eyes became visible from above her.

"Shisui…" Sakura mumbled as she tried to sit up from where she was lying, she looked down to see that she was currently on a hospital bed. Sakura groaned, she must have fainted from chakra depletion. She hoped beyond hope that her shishou would not hear of this. If she did, Sakura would be bombarded with lectures and many _MANY_ insults.

"Look who decided to come back to the world of the living." An unamused voice was heard. Sakura cringed, knowing who the voice belonged to. Letting out a nervous laugh, Sakura turned to her beloved teacher.

"Shishou, it's good to see you. How have you been?" Sakura asked, feigning innocence. Those words though, seemed to infuriate Tsunade more than she was in the beginning.

"What were you thinking you idiot!" She practically screamed at Sakura. Said pinkett cowered slightly as she brought the blanket over her head to pretend she wasn't there. She was dead, that much could be seen.

"First using the chakra enhanced strength without proper training and now exhausting your chakra capacity to a bare minimum; you were in a critical state for Kami's sake!" Tsunade continued to lecture, leaving Sakura to further drag the blankets over her trembling form.

"I apologise Hokage-sama, it was our fault that this happened" Itachi spoke up. Sakura's eyes widened under the blankets, was he actually taking the blame for her? She couldn't believe it. Sakura was about to protest but before she could make a sound Tsunade did so for her.

"Don't try to protect her Uchiha, Sakura should know better than to exhaust her chakra." The blonde turned to the covered girl. "You _know_ your capacity is less than most, yet you still push yourself. Do you really want a repeat on the last time?"

At the mention of the last time Sakura grew as pale as the blankets she was hiding under. That was not a good memory, and a memory she wished it to remain. Sakura mumbled an apology as her eyes grew weary.

"What do you mean 'last time'?" Shisui asked. Before Sakura could stop her, Tsunade was already talking. Sakura inwardly whined as she heard her teacher tell the two Uchihas about the mistake she did not too long ago.

"Around 3 months ago Sakura was training non-stop to better a medical jutsu I had showed her; she trained so much actually that she did not care that her chakra levels were dwindling. In the end she overestimated how much chakra she had and ended up unconscious in the field she had been training at. Thankfully, Kakashi had been looking for her when she did not show for their team meeting and found her in the field. He took her to the hospital were she was barely saved from death. She was in a critical condition with just barely enough chakra to survive. If Kakashi had found her even a minute later she might have not made it."

The room was deathly silent after the story was told, Sakura could feel eyes penetrating her form as she fidgeted slightly . Suddenly she felt a force hit her on top of the head, hitting her like she usually would do to Naruto.

"You idiot" She heard Shisui whisper, Sakura groaned slightly as she rubbed the new bump on top of her head. She uncovered herself to see Shisui looking at her with worried eyes. "Never exert yourself so much again." Sakura looked down ashamed.

She was always saying the same to her boys, calling them idiots for pushing themselves too hard. And now look at her, doing the same thing. She really was a hypocrite.

"I won't." She assured the black haired male who nodded in appreciation. Taking the blankets off of her head, she saw Shisui giving her one of his usual grins. Sakura smiled back before looking back at her shishou, seeing that she was still not happy. Suddenly, a gleam entered Tsunade's eyes. That was never a good sign.

"Because of your immature behaviour, tomorrow your punishment will be doing . Paperwork I have for the hospital. Oh and no help is permitted." Sakura paled at that, she knew her teacher will do anything to not have to do paperwork, but seriously? Dumping all of the Hospital paperwork onto Sakura? And without help? That will take her at least a month to finish!

"Shishou" Sakura slightly whined, please oh please Kami tell her she was playing around with her. "I will see you tomorrow at 4 o'clock a.m. sharp, don't be late" With those departing words Sakura was left with the two Uchihas.

"I'm doomed." Sakura grumbled as she turned around and stuffed her face in the pillow. "It can't be that bad." Shisui laughed, looking at Sakura with amused eyes.

"The paper work for the hospital is at least 3 feet tall," Sakura mumbled out from her place in the pillow. Shisui whistled as he looked at Sakura with amused pity. That must be because of the amount of patients in the Hospital, the staff, medicine supplies and cost, and so on and so forth.

"I pity you cherry" Shisui practically laughed out, he didn't seem to sympathise her at all. More like he is amused by her predicament. That damn jerk.

"Hmmm… At least you will learn take better care of yourself" Itachi said plainly; Sakura contemplated snapping at him but decided it would do her no good. So she decided to keep silent the part about him being a hypocrite until she was able to stand against him….. Which will be never.

"Well luckily your chakra depletion wasn't as severe as originally thought. The doctors told us that a 2 hour long rest will have you back to your feet." Sakura nodded, looking at her clenched fists, why was it that she was so weak? If Naruto or even Sasuke ever got chakra exhausted they only needed a 30 minutes to an hour to feel better.

But not Sakura, not poor little weak Sakura who comes close to death if even the slightest bit chakra depleted. Tsunade had told her that it could be the effects of her being civilian born making her reserves naturally smaller than children birthed from clans, yet Sakura couldn't help but feel that there was more to it. Why her? Why always her?

Biting back the tears, Sakura gave the two Uchihas a fake smile, making it look as real as possible. "I see, well then I guess I'll be seeing ya." They didn't seem to buy her little act, but chose not to comment.

Shisui gave her a grin, kissing her on the cheek before she could possibly protest. Itachi gave her a nod of farewell before grabbing Shisu by the collar and dragging him out behind him. Face beating red, Sakura got comfortable as she could possibly be on the lumpy mattress.

Wishing to be back home on her comfortable bed, the pinkette fell asleep; tiredness she didn't know she held consuming her, leaving her in a sea of black.

O.O.O

(Bold is Sakura's thoughts)

"Oh you made it! I'm so happy you're here"

 **What's happening? Where am I?**

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world, Is she awake?"

 **Who's there? What are they saying?**

"No, afraid that she's taking a nap. The poor thing must have tired"

 _Green eyes opened as Sakura looked at her surroundings. Her vision was blurry and she could not move her body at all. She tried moving her arm, but it was as if a force kept her from making a move; as if her brain was disconnected from her body._

 **Wh-What's going on!? I can't move, am I tied down or something?!**

"Oh look at her, such a little cutie she is. Just look at her eyes, have you seen anything like her. I mean she has _pink_ hair for heaven's sake"

 _Sakura saw two figures directly above her, she tried opening her mouth to demand to know where she was but found her mouth completely immobile. The two figure's details were hard to see, but from what she could tell both were female._

"And guess what! He told me I could keep her!"

"You shouldn't talk about the child like an item. I really feel sorry for the poor baby"

 _Sakura felt warmth invade her as one of the figures picked her up and held her close._

"Don't listen to that big meanie, hmm now what to name her"

 _Sakura stared at the blurry face of the woman holding her, how the heck can this woman carry her like that? Last time she remembered she wasn't this small!_

 **How the hell did I end up in this predicament**

"Her hair reminds me of Cherry blossoms... That's it! what about Sakura?"

 _Sakura felt her whole world stop as she heard those words, all sense left her as she stayed there dumbly trying to decipher what she had just heard. She stopped breathing for a moment as her eyes widened wildly._

 **They are...naming me? What the hell! Why am I having this dream?**

 _Sakura's vision started to spin as her mind went blank, she didn't know where she was or what she was doing, but what she did know was that she wanted to leave this place._

"Sakura...I love it! From now on your name will be Sakura Haruno!"

 _That was the last thing Sakura heard before everything went black, she thought it was over, relaxing ever so slightly Sakura didn't know that this wasn't close to finished._

Itachi looked at his cousin with passive eyes as they stood inside the training ground Sakura had taken a liking to. Shisui had taken him here but he did not know why, all he had been told was 'Follow me' before Shisui started running to this direction.

Looking around the clearing he saw many kunai and shuriken stuck to trees that had target practices on them. "Why are we here Shisui?" Itachi asked his cousin, no longer being able to stay quiet and just stand there.

Shisui looked back at him, an exasperated look on his face."And here I thought you were a genius Tachi-chan." Said Uchiha glared at his cousin before looking around the training ground once more.

Suddenly he felt it, no he didnt see it. What Shisui was trying to show him was not seen, but rather _felt._ His cousin must have seen the surprise in his eyes because he started to laugh cheerily. "And so the great Itachi finally sees it, can't belive it took you so long lil' cuz"

Shrugging off his cousin's teasing, Itachi walked closer to one of the trees. Putting a hand on the tree's trunk, Itachi rubbed it slightly. He felt it, it was faint but still there. Sakura's chakra was embedded in a compact form inside of the tree. He could barely feel it but it was still there. It seemed almost like the tree was holding on to the chakra, it was unworldly.

"Quite the phenomenal eh cuz?" Itachi inwardly agreed to Shisui's statement, he had never seen anything like this before. Going to the next tree, he also sensed Sakura's chakra embedded deep in it, yet it seemed to have more. It looked like some of the trees had a small amount of chakra from Sakura in them while others didn't have it or it wasn't as prominent.

"Why do you think the trees have traces of her chakra _inside_ of them?"

Why indeed, Itachi was unsure of the answer. It was not unusual for traces of chakra to be left in an environment, that was actually how trackers were able to find the people they were after, by following the traces of chakra left behind. But never in all his years as a shinobi had Itachi ever heard of a tree keeping chakra stored inside of it.

Sure there was the trees used to make chakra paper but those was a special kind of tree, nothing like these normal everyday trees that certainly _shouldn't be_ absorbing chakra. Trying to experiment with his findings, Itachi sent a bit of his chakra into the tree. The results were immediate, the tree seemed to reject his chakra as he felt the bark slightly burn from his chakra.

Itachi quickly retracted his hand when, what he previously thought dormant chakra, suddenly lashed out at him burning his hand not unlike what he had done to the tree. Itachi stared as his burnt hand, eyes shined in slight fascination on how the remainder of the chakra seemed to heal the tree before completely depleting.

The tree seemed to wilt ever so slightly at the loss of chakra from Sakura as Itachi observed the newly healed trunk, there were slight traces of the hakra burn that he created but other than that is was healed exceptionally.

Looking down at his own brunt hand, he inspected the red mark from where the chakra had burned him. Itachi lightly touched it but flinched back slightly from the pain. "Damn 'tachi-chan, that is some painful looking burn"

Rolling his eyes at his cousin's obvious observation, Itachi didn't expect his cousin to suddenly grab a hold of his arm and drag him from the training grounds. "Let's go get that brun healed, we need to check on our little blossom anyways"

Before any protest could be made by the younger Uchiha, who Shisui knew hated being checked on by a nurse, Shusui added, "If Sakura;'s awake she'll check on it."

Shisui smirked at his cousin, who had suddenly become less resistant on going to the hospital. It was a widely a known fact that any known shinobi hated the hospital. Kakashi being an infamous one, known for always being able to snap out before his release date. Shisui will admit that he had his far shares of Hospital ditching throughout his ninja career and Itachi will rather die a slow, agonizing death before directly going to a medic for any injury.

After around 20 min of speeding through buildings the two Uchihas made it to the Hospital and inside of Sakura's room through the normal ninja door, that of course being the window. They, however, were not expecting the bloody-murder scream that suddenly arose from Sakura.

O.O.O

 **Make it stop, Oh kami make it stop!**

 _Red colored Sakura's world as she frantically looked anywhere but what was infront of her. She didn't want to see it, couldnt see it. Oh please just get her out of here, she didn't want to see any more._

 **I'm going Mad**

 _In front of her laid the body of the one person she loved the most, unwanted memories filled her mind as Sakura cried. Tears streamed down her face yet she couldn't close her eyes. It was as if they were glued open as she looked to the left._

 _There laid another body, yet this one she knew wasn't real, that didn't make it ay less painful._

 **Tou-san….**

 _There laid the body of the father she never knew, looking ever so much like the man in the photos she had stared at countless of times. Tears streamed down as she looked to her right, there stood one person that she knew all too well._

 **Nee-san**

 _Sakura watched as he rsister figure looked at her with expressionless eyes, so unlike the loved filled ones her sister always held when looking at Sakura. She saw her her sister whispered 'Good bye' before turning and walking away._

 **Nee-san! Don't leave me! Please come back! nee-san!**

 _Sakura made a run for her sister but before she got far she was grabbed by the foot. She looked down to see that it was her most important person, her mother held her leg as she looked at Sakura, filled with hope Sakura crouched and held her mother in her arms._

 _Time seemed to stop as suddenly her mother's eyes became soulless and her breathing stopped. Holding the corpse in an embrace, Sakura looked in front of her with slightly crazed eyes, not again, no why, why was this repeating. Why again? why her?_

 _A scream tore through her vocal cords as Sakura held the once again cold body of her mother._

Shisui and Itachi tried to stop the fraying Sakura from causing harm to herself. Already she had caused the IV needle to forcefully rip off her arm when she she started to thrash, causing blood run down freely from her wound.

Itachi held down both of her arms as Shisui held down her kicking feet, but Sakura just screamed louder.

Itachi saw tears fell down closed eyes, her eyes not open yet. A nightmare? Most likely seeing as that she seemed the state she was in. The doors burst open as Tsunade strolled into the room. She quickly took charge of the situation as she started barking orders to the medics that had followed behind her.

Itachi and Shisui stepped back as medics took their places, forcefully holding down Sakura's limbs as she was tied down with restraints. Tsunade leaned over the flailing girl as she put a green-glowing hand on Sakura's sweaty forehead.

The pinkette body seemed to tense up as the small chakra she still had lashed out of her body, almost as if moving around the room

Shisui and Itachi tensed up at the feeling of her chakra, it felt almost like a cornered animal as it moved around the room frantically, almost as if looking for something. Tsunade pumped even more chakra into Sakura, already knowing what was wrong with her. Finally the pinkette stopped screaming as her body relaxed.

Itachi and Shisui stayed there, shocked and looking towards the now still pinkette as the nurses stopped holding her down. The nurses moved back from the bed giving both Uchihas the opportunity to stand by the pinkette's side.

"What the hell happened" Shisui couldn't help but ask, Tsunade looked over Sakura with green glowing hands as she healed her bleeding arm caused by the IV. Making sure that the pinkette had not hurt herself further, the blonde sighed as she also straightened up once she saw no further injuries.

She looked at the males in front of her with honey brown eyes, looking over their figures to see if her student had caused them harm from her unpredictable thrashing. She could see that the younger Uchiha was holding his hand ever so slightly, it looked to be burnt by chakra, which might have been caused by Sakura in the disarray.

Without saying anything Tsunade grabbed Itachi's hand without his consent as she healed the burn quickly before letting his hand go again. Itachi glared slightly at her as he grunted, "Hn" and here was the reason why Tsunade disliked these cold bastards. No thankfulness whatsoever, oh how she wished she could punch said icecubes all the way to Suna.

Huffing, Tsunade started walking away, the nurses had left once Sakura had been calmed down, most likely not wanting to be present because of the tense atmosphere these Uchihas had created. She was stopped though when Shisui grabbed her forearm, stopping her from leaving the room.

The Hokage looked at the oldest Uchiha stiffly, calm brown clashed with worried and irritated onyx. "Hokage-sama please, tell us what's wrong with Sakura"

This was the first time Shisui had said Sakura's real name, showing the true seriousness of the situation. Itachi felt himself also worried for the pinkette, not that he would ever say that outloud. He had seen many Shinobi having those types of reactions from nightmares that have happened because of truly traumatizing missions, many of which usually happen when they have lost teammates or have had to follow orders with little morality.

But why Sakura? What did that girl go through to make those types of nightmares appear? Itachi felt himself hesitant in wanting to know the answer. Looking at the pinkette, he felt himself become curious about her past, who was this small fragile looking girl truly?

"Shisui I demand that you let go of me at this instance!" Tsunade said firmly, eyes glaring at the taller Uchiha with authority. Yet, her resolve seemed crumble as the current Hokage sighed, looking as if she had aged years as her shoulders sagged, almost seeming as if she was carrying the work on them.

"It is not my pace to disclose Sakura's past" Tsunade settled for that response, she looked at Shisui, who had finally let go of her. How had Sakura gotten acquainted to these Uchihas of all people? It seemed her student was a true magnet for trouble whether she knew it or not.

"Hokage-sama if I may, we are Sakura's current teachers and while not official we do hold a part in keeping her safe. Through holding this information from us, you are making our job as her teachers much harder. Furthermore, withholding this information might bring forth danger to Sakura, seeing as that she might have an attack such as this one in the future, yet we will not be able to help due to us not being aware of the condition she in. By being able to know more over the cause of this, we may be able to further help Sakura in her recovery and even unburden her even if just slightly. So I must insist on you providing us the cause of Sakura's mental breakdown. If not for our sakes than for hers."

Tsunade had to fight the urge to widen her eyes as the usually calm and silent Itachi suddenly spoke up. ' _How much have you truly wiggled yourself into these two I wonder, that might have been the longest speech I have ever heard from this man.'_ The current Hokage thought to herself as she stared at the troubled Uchihas..

While it truly was not her place to disclose this information, Sakura _needed_ the extra support. True she had her and Shizune, but there was only so much the blonde and her other student could truly do to help the young pinkette.

"I will let Sakura wake up first, then if she wishes I will disclose her past to just maybe, she will do so herself."

The two Uchihas reluctantly accepted, knowing this was the best they were going to get in the end. Now all that was left is to wait for said pinkette to wake up.

Sakura, please wake up soon.

* * *

 **Mevy** : Finally finished! It's 4 in the morning and all I want to do now is seep my life away

 **Sakura** : And this is why the doctor keeps telling you that you have the health of an old lady

 **Mevy** : I have my meds, so I'm A-OK

 **Sasuke** : Those are the words of someone with a one-way ticket to an early grave

 **Mevy** : Oh shut it chicken-ass, I have enough of a headache without your annoying plucks

 **Shikamaru** :...troublesome

 **Mevy** : Ya know, you and Paul would make great friends.

 **Shikamaru** : Who?

 **Mevy** : Different story, pretty sure you met already though. Hmm, I bet Temari and Dawn could empathise with one another

 **Sakura** : Mevy you should stop now, the amount of errors you are making right now are increasing. Also you are not making much sense now

 **Itachi** : Hn…

 **Mevy** : He's still mad over the kiss right?

 **Sakura** : (Blush)

 **Shisui** : (Smirk) 'Tachi-chan sulking that I was Sakura's first kiss?

 **Naruto** : WAIT WHAT!?

 **Mevy** : Great, I feel a migraine coming

 **Sasuke** : (Glaring at Shisui)

 **Kakashi** : Sakura, I never knew you were in that type of relationship

 **Sakura** : (Red Face) It was on the cheek!

 **Mevy** : Ugh, I'm just ending it now. Thank you all for reading.

 **Tenten** : Hope you liked it.

 **Hinata** : Pl-please re-review (blush)

 **Sai** : See you in the next chapter uglies (Gets smacked by Sakura)

 **Naruto** : BELIEVE IT!

 **Itachi** :..hn

 **Shisui** : Bye!


	7. Chapter 7 I trust you

**Mevy** : Hey there everyone, Mayeevee here with a new installment of Blooming

 **Sakura** : (Sigh) And as late as always

 **Mevy** : There is a reason I never made an updating schedule

 **Shisui** : Kami you have no shame

 **Mevy** : (Grinning) Nope

 **Sasuke** : Why do we put up with this bi-

 **Mevy** : (Holding a knife against Sasuke's neck) What was that?

 **Sasuke** : (Gulp) Nothing

 **Tsunade** : Just start the story, I do not have time for this

 **Mevy** ; (Slightly scared) Yes ma'am, Neji sweetcheeks, the disclaimer

 **Neji** : (Disturbed) Hn, Mayeevee does not own Naruto or any of the characters from the franchise in this story. This is just her sorry excuse of a fanfic.

 **Mevy** : (Crying) Cold-hearted jerk as always. Welp, here are the review responses

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 **LadyCalus** : You truly are an angel, thank you for informing me of the typo. My computer seems to auto-correct Shisui's name as Sasuke's name, but I finally added Shisui to the dictionary so hopefully that won't happen again. Thank you again for taking the time to inform me of this and please enjoy this new chapter.

 **Emma3mikan** : Haha as long as I have great reviewers as you I certainly will. I feel so happy kindhearted people review my story, thank you and please enjoy this new chapter.

 **GinaCat** : I'm so happy that people are actually enjoying this. I really hope you will continue to like this chapter and further chapters to come.

 **Emzy2k11** : Sorry for the wait, I am not the most punctual of people. I;m happy that you are enjoying the story so far, hopefully you will equally like this new installment.

 **Marisilveirad** : I'm happy that you do, I really love hearing that people actually love this story. I hope you continue to read. Enjoy this new chapter.

 **Nedrag94** : Well here it is! Hopefully it lives up to your expectations lol

 **Bloodmoon** Goddess: You don't know how much I am touched you are a faithful reader, I am so happy that you love this story so much. People like you are the muses that keep me writing, thank you and hopefully you will stick around as the plot further unfolds. Believe me, the plot has not truly begun just yet. Enjoy!

 **Ael24strawberry** : Haha, hopefully this didn't come out as late as I think it did. I am glad you enjoy the story so far and hopefully you stick around to the end. Enjoy this new chapter

 **daliap. perez** : Es mi placer! Denuevo lo siento si mi espanol esta mal, soy mexicana pero no lo e practicado tanto jaja. Bueno lo que Sakura está escondiendo va a ser revelado muy pronto, mas le lo que piensas. Espero que te guste este nuevo capítulo

 **Naomipy** : Glad to know you liked it, hopefully you like this one just as much.

 **Guest** : I'm happy to know that you like the story so far, hopefully you like this new chapter!

 **Angeldancer93** : First of all, thank you so much for your wonderful review, it really made my day to read it. Also, the reason for which Shisui and Itachi took her, well it wasn't really one of those "We saw her and we knew she was the one" type of thing. In the end, it was pure timing, luck, and a sense of duty. Mostly pity though, which I don't like either but it's the truth. Shisui saw Sakura like someone would see an abandoned puppy, he wanted to take care of her, he is someone who loves justice if what his biography said was true, and he wouldn't take such blatant show of desertion for he also believed in teamwork. Itachi was mostly just pulled along by his cousin's show of duty, that and a new sort of interest in Sakura's new technique. So, really Sakura was just lucky she met them at that time, alone and in need of someone to give her a chance. Lol, now I just ranted, sorry about that. Also, you will have to wait until later chapters to see what will happen between Sakura and Team Seven, the three met of team seven will soon have a fresh wake up call in terms of Sakura lol

 **Savemechocolate** : Haha, I updated! Lol sorry for the wait, I am not the greatest in timing. I'm happy that you are enjoying the story so far and Hope that you like this new chapter of Blooming!

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 **Mevy** : I am soo happy that so many people are reviewing to this story, it is truly mind blowing. Thank you all for your support and hope that you like this new chapter!

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Chapter 7: I trust you

Her mind swam in the blissful black oblivion. She felt as if she was for once truly free as she floated around the dark surroundings. Suddenly, a light was seen in the distance.

At first she had the desire to stay away from the bright light, wanting to stay in the welcomed darkness, yet that resolve suddenly broke as she heard familiar voices calling her name.

"Sakura? Sakura please wake up! Sakura!"

She swam faster towards the light, or did she float? She no longer knew the difference really, all she knew was that she needed to go closer to those voices, she needed to escape this peacefully world.

Finally she dove into the light, white filled her vision as she felt herself waking up.

"Sakura, you're finally awake!" She heard a cheerful voice exclaim. At first she believed it had come from Naruto, at the thought a warm feeling swarmed in her mind, that would most likely mean her team had been there, they were worried for her!

Seconds later those hopefully thoughts left her, the voice had been too deep to be Naruto's, there was also the fact that she could see black hair in her blurring vision.

At first the realization squashed her heart, her team had not come to check on her. The pained feeling soon left when she realized the person calling to her was in fact Shisui. Once more her heart fluttered, even more so when she saw Itachi standing a little ways away yet close enough for her to make him out.

Blinking a few more times, Sakura tried to adjust her blurry vision as she looked at the two Uchihas. Before any questions could be asked a certain blonde woman suddenly appeared in the room.

"Seems you have awaken" Tsunade said with an irritated voice, yet happiness can be made out by the slight tilt of her lips and the softness form her honey brown eyes. "How are you feeling brat?"

Sakura took a moment to slightly check in on herself. Other than some tiredness she felt just fine, which was a wonder seeing as that she had been resting for all this time.

"Great actually" Sakura decided to say, hoping that would be enough for her to be discharged and be sent on her merry way.

"That's good actually, because we have something very important to discuss." Tsunade claimed, her warm eyes narrowing from seriousness as her stare penetrated Sakura's form.

Sakura felt the atmosphere change in an instant. She notice the slight stiffen in the two Uchihas postures (Shisui being the most noticeable) as Tsunade looked directly into her eyes, honey brown analyzing her very being.

"Sakura you had another nightmare, this one while you were recuperating. Thankfully you didn't manage to cause too much harm in your physique, but it was still quite a serious reaction." Tsunade said, her words cutting as she never took her eyes away from her student's own.

Sakura felt her whole world falling out of its axis. She thought she had gotten over those Kami forsaken nightmares. She believed she was cured, that she had finally made peace with the past events.

' _Why? Why can't I just accept the past as the past. Why do I have to keep re-seeing those awful events?'_

"Sakura, we want you to tell us what's wrong, me and Tachi-chan here want to help you. All you have to do is let us in" Shisui then cut in, his own gaze strong as it seemed to hold Sakura in place. She could not look away from his oblivion orbs as she gritted her teeth.

His words pulled at Sakura's chest as she tried to look away, but to no avail. Could she? Could she really let these two men who she barely knew? Should she tell them those thoughts would have been taboo before? Even when her own team did not even know of the nightmares she was haunted by, much less the cause for them.

Sakura took in a deep breath, she didn't know whether to tell them or not, the pain was as still too fresh, too deep. She _wanted_ to tell them, Oh how much she wished she could let all this weight leave her shoulders if even a bit, even if it will have to be carried by another, was that too selfish of her?

Sakura felt comfort as Shisui stared at her with soft black eyes, Itachi too now stood next to her, his posture much more approachable. This made up her mind as Sakura readied herself for what she was about to say, yet at the same time she felt anxious at the words about to leave her mouth.

Should she really reveal this? Especially to people she had just barely met?

Shaking her head Sakura let all those negative thoughts leave her mind. They had been there for her more than the team she had been assigned to. They had taught her more in the few hours she had been with them than Kakashi himself had in the months she had been under his tutelage. Maybe this was the first step she had to take to make them trust her. Maybe, if she opened herself first, they would follow through soon enough. A team was built on trust, something she had not experienced with Team Seven, but maybe, just maybe, she would be able to accomplish it with these two. These thoughts made up her mind as Sakura finally spoke.

"A few years ago, around the time I was 8 or 9, my mother contacted a disease unknown the the Konoha hospital. The doctors thought that this disease would not be terminal, that it was some kind of genetic factor that made my mother act up. If only it had been just that, the disease went from some type of genetic factor to a full out killer in a few weeks. At first it had only been small stuff, things like fatigue or loss of appetite. The more serious signs had been coughing of blood leading up to random fainting.

It had gone to the point where my mother could no longer control any body function. She couldn't even talk, having lost most feeling in her mouth area, it was to the point where she was bedridden and had to be fed through tubes..."

Sakura suddenly choked up, tears managing to fall from her eyes as the memories of her mother being in such a sad state entered her thoughts. The once independent and strong woman being bedridden and left to depend for the most basic of things, it had been a truly agonising sight, one which continues to hunt Sakura's memories throughout her life.

"There had been nothing that could be done, all the the doctors could really do was take samples of her blood and give her medicine to better circulate the blood which seemed to not be traveling fluidly, yet they weren't sickle cells like the doctors had first thought, the cells were normal in shape but the chemical function had been different. It got to the point where my mom had to be injected with different antibiotics almost every single day because even the slightest of colds could kill her at that point.

Then it was almost like a miracle stoke, my mom got better, the cells traveled more easily through the vessels as she seemed to make remarkable recovery. The doctors believed that if she continued to make such recoveries she would be cured in no time."

A sob escaped Sakura's lips as she tried to stop the tears from falling, yet it was in vain as further tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Almost a week later I visited my mother, I commonly visited once a day if not every two days, trying to keep her company. The doctor had just finished checking on her, everything seemed fine." Another sob escaped Sakura as Shisui took her hands into his own, trying to comfort her the best he could. Yet he made no sound, even though he had an idea of what was coming next.

"The heart monitor had suddenly started to pick up." Sakura continued retelling, her eyes now closed as she leaned fully into Shisu. Her voice came out in with increasing effort. She was holding back sobs, wanting to tell the whole story before she fully broke down. " It had been out of nowhere, she was having an attack and all I could do was cry out to the doctors while at the same time begging my mother to stay with me, to not give up."

Sakura took a as she tightened her hold on Shisui's hands, trying to find comfort in them as she buried her cheek against his chest.

"She died in my arms, the last things she had said was 'I love you little blossom', it had been slightly incoherent yet I still managed to understand her completely as she layed in my arms, letting out her last breath as the doctors tried in vain to help her, using chakra to try and restart her heart, too busy to even think of removing me as they tried to bring my mother back. In the end they gave up, they tried removing me from her but I wouldn't let them. I stayed there holding my mother's corpse until a childhood friend and new guardian had come and taken me back home. In the end I decided to join the Ninja academy, my mother's friend taking full custody of me."

Sakura finished off the story, tears still flowing her hands letting go of Shisui's as she wrapped them around herself, her face now buried in his chest. She tried to rid the images of her mother laying in her arms, the once warm and lively woman reduced to a still and cold corpse while all Sakura could do was hold her close and ask her to hold on in vain.

She felt warmth envelope her as he face was crushed more fully against Shisui's chest. She could feel the soft fabric as large hands started to rub her back gently. She heard Shisui whisper sweet nothings in her ear as she gave in and snuggled into his embrace. She allowed herself to be pulled into the warmness as tears continued to flow, not looking ready to stop just yet.

Finally, after a few more minutes sobs subdued to simple hiccups as her tear supply seemed to have finally dried up. Sakura gently leaned back from Shisui yet didn't exactly get out of his embrace. Her cheeks burned from embarrassment as she quickly wiped away the rest of her tears, trying to revive the sliver of dignity she had left.

"Sh-shisui...I'm so sorry! Your shirt-" before Sakura could continue Shisui gently shushed her as he gave her his usual large gins.

"It's fine Blossom-!" At the sudden realization of what he had called her, Shisui clamped up, remembering what Sakura had said had been her mother's last words to her.

Sakura revised what made Shisui suddenly go silent, understanding filled her as she gave him a sad smile. "I really like it when you call me that, it reminds me of how she used to call me. It makes me feel…..safe."

Sakura blushed at what she had just said as she buried her face in her arms, wishing for the ground to open and swallow her whole.

For a moment Shisui was flabbergasted at what the little pink haired genie had just said, never having believed she would ever say something like that out loud. A grin made itself once more known on his face as Shisui's eyes glinted in amusement.

"Then from now on your new new nickname will be blossom, ne Tachi-chan you'll also have to call her that."

At first Itachi was going to argue back one that the statement. He was not one to mess around with the childish antics of giving nicknames, finding the very function of them useless. If one already had a name there was no need in giving each other varying names just for the fun of it. Codenames he could understand, but simple nicknames for friends? He couldn't truly fathom the idea.

Yet, something about seeing Sakura splutter in opposition and shock made him play along, just to be able to see what type of face she would make.

"Blossom is is," that was one for the first times Itachi had to suppress a chuckle in years as Sakura turned beat red. She opened and closed her mouth that akin to a fish until she finally closed it with a final snap, not finding any words to say as she instead decided to once more bury her face in her arms, her ears still showing an alarming shade of red.

"Tachi you bully," Itachi couldn't help himself from chuckling as the pinkette retaliated with the same nickname his cousin had given him. Sakura's head shot up at the sound of his chuckling as she stared at him in amazement, eyes shining as if she had just found the most extravagant treasure there was.

Itachi let a small smile show as he gently picked her forehead, patting her head afterwards.

Tsunade watched the scene from the sidelines; a smile pulling at the corners of her lips as she saw the interactions between the three of them. She had never seen Sakura so relaxed before, no one would have ever know the atmosphere had been so depressing before as they seemed to communicate with each other without using words.

' _Seems like you found another place to belong Sakura.'_ Suddenly Tsunade's demeanor took a turn as her eyes grew serious. ' _I wonder how your teammates will take to this new development.'_

Tsunade sighed, knowing that a confrontation will take place in the coming future. She just hoped Sakura will make the right choice once the time came.

' _What is it that_ you _want, Sakura?_ ' the answer, she was sure, not even Sakura knew herself.

O.O.O

A few hours more of checkups and 'recovery' Sakura had finally been given the green light to leave the hospital. She had been able to convince Tsunade, just barely mind you, to not inform Team 7 of what had occurred. Letting them know would have opened up countless questions and the pinkette wasn't exactly in the mood to lie to her team, but neither was she ready to tell them the truth.

Sadly, after being discharged Sakura was informed by her mentor that she would have to take therapy sessions once more, not only because of the hospital mishap but also for something that had seemed to happen in the last mission -what it was Sakura was unsure of- They had to make sure she was coherently sane and not about to snap unexpectedly.

Sighing for the thousandth time that day, the young genin continued her walk towards her home. It was now close to nighttime and she had to make sure she was in top shape for tomorrow. Her stay at the hospital had taken up surprisingly a little more a day and a half,, which could explain why she was not in the most tip top of shape. The doctors tried to keep her overnight once more, but finding nothing wrong with her (other than the nightmares, yet there was nothing they could do for her other than giving her sleeping pills) she was begrudgingly let free.

Itachi and Shisui had left hours earlier, having been called in by their clan. Something about a last minute meeting that had been scheduled. They had apologised to her, but she had waved their words away telling them that she was okay and that they had nothing to worry about. They had left, rather unconvinced by her assurance, and she could not help but feel slightly saddened looking at their retreating backs.

Tsunade, bless her soul, had put a potted plant from the hallways inside her room at her request, letting her feel peaceful in the remainder of her stay. Her mentor had looked at her questionably when she had asked, but chose not to comment and had instead told one of the nurses to bring in the plant. The pinkette's chakra a had automatically gone in the plant, causing Tsunade to watch in wonder. She had asked questions such as what she had found in the library over this finding, causing Sakura the disclose the notebook she had found in the restricted area. Tsunade had looked quite intrigued by the information and had told Sakura to continue her search as soon as possible.

Sighing once more, Sakura found that she had finally made it to her house while deep in thought. Grabbing the keys from her back pocket in her shorts, she opened the locked door and went inside. Taking off her shoe, Sakura smiled sadly at the picture of her parents.

"I almost forgot how much I missed you these past few weeks. Seems like the memories striked back with vengeance because of it. Though, now that I think about it, the dream before the nightmare was particular. I wonder what it was about." Shaking her head Sakura mentally berated herself over her paranoia, it had just been a normal confusing dream that was nothing more than her imagination acting up.

Walking farther in her apartment, Sakura decided that a shower was in order to try and wash away the events of the day.

O.O.O

The next day Sakura readied herself for her normal morning hospital schedule. Deciding to eat sushi rather than dango that morning, Sakura quickly prepared the easier food, making sure to make extra for lunch. Once finished Sakura quickly took off towards the hospital via rooftops to arrive on time.

Going through the motions of her shift she was surprised when she met Shikamaru for a check up. The lazy genius seemed as bored as ever, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there. Sakura wanted nothing more than to die at that moment, looking down at her schedule she flipped the page over to see that he was in fact her next patient. Well, that's what she gets for not checking the schedule beforehand.

Sighing, the pinkette grabbed a hold of her bearings. She had hoped to Kami above that no one in her age group other than her team would ever see her in this outfit. Sadly it seemed that Kami was not on her side these past few days. Holding back the urge to run away screaming 'I QUIT,' around the hospital, Sakura put on her professional mask as she walked in the room with purpose.

"Nara-san, I presume you are here for your annual check up." Inwardly cringing at the words she had been drilled to say, she looked at the files she had been given beforehand. Checking over his information, she found that he had been to the hospital recently because of a broken foot and mild poisoning, courtesy of their last mission. Seems like Team 7 weren't the only ones with shitty luck on missions.

"Have you been feeling any discomforts or any pains that should be noted?" Sakura continued, noticing his blank stare as he seemed to gaze at her in confusion.

Finally snapping out of his trance, Shikamaru muttered a silent 'troublesome' before answering a simple no. Nodding her head Sakura checked it off of the checklist before stepping closer to the male.

"Okay, I'm going to be examining your internal organs to make sure that they are working correctly. First though, I would like you to please remove your shirt." Shikamaru blushed ever so slightly at her words. Sakura managed to fight her own blush down. Even after seeing so many shirtless men in her time as a nurse, she still had to manually control her cheeks from heating, stupid shinobi with their stupidly well built bodies.

Still looking uncomfortable, Shikamaru managed to take his shirt off as his muscles tensed over the new coldness. Nodding her head in thanks, she smiled at him before placing her clipboard down. "Okay, I'm going to put my hands on your chest. This might feel uncomfortable at first."

"Troublesome, just do it already." Not at his rudeness, Sakura's right hand glowed a light green as she placed it over the brunette's surprisingly well built body. Using the chakra to help relax his muscles, she later made sure that his lungs and heart worked correctly.

"Could you breath deeply for me?" Following her orders Shikamaru took in a deep breath before letting it go. Nodding, Sakura was happy to see his lungs expand normally. Letting her chakra check over the rest of his bodily organs, she was able to see just how well his systems were working. While they were mostly orderly, she was able to see a certain strain in both his back muscles and legs. Either from extensive training or too much weight of something she was unsure of, but it had to be uncomfortable.

"Nara-san, I am able to see certain strains in part of your body. I will try to relax them, but to do so you might feel uncomfortable at first." At his hesitant nod, Sakura placed her board in the stand next to the bed. "Now please lay down in you stomach."

Doing as she commanded, Shikamaru tensed as Sakura placed her hands on his back. Her hands glowing green, she worked in internally massaging his muscles while at the same time sucking away the fatigue using chakra, it was slightly grueling but effective as she felt Shikamaru relax under her. Moving her hands to his thigh, she thought about making him wear a hospital gown but thought better of it. While it would be more difficult to use chakra though cloth, Sakura was not about to make this visit more extensive than it already was. And so, wishing to all the gods that this will work, Sakura pushed her chakra through his inanimate clothing and into his skin. It took longer than it usually would, but once she found his strain she made quick work of it.

"All done Nara-san. Your systems are working well and now your muscles are all relaxed and unstrained. I would recommend visiting the hot springs more often. Too much strain and you might hurt your muscles irreparably." At his nod, Sakura gave him half a bow before leaving, trying not to run out like she wanted to. She really hoped this would be the last time she met anyone from the Rookie nine.

O.O.O

Sakura had become quite predictable, without her knowledge that was. If anyone asked, she would be found either in the hospital, or in the training grounds, not that anyone other than her two self appointed sensei's knew. So it shouldn't really have come as a shock to her when the only time they met outside of team training was in the training grounds, with their own respective teacher.

So that's how Sakura found herself facing both Naruto and Sasuke, standing besides Jiraiya and Kakashi respectively in her way to meditate, get some physical training, and read over scrolls about chakra control and how to sharpen it. Tsunade had told her she needed to be able to withstand weight twice her own and have almost perfect chakra control before she fully mastered inhuman strength.

Not only that but Itachi and Shisui had set up a meeting date tomorrow to train. She needed to sharpen her control so that she could be able to better meet their expectations this time.

But she had not really visualized meeting her teammates. She contemplated turning around and running, but had a feeling they wouldn't take that too kindly.

"Sakura-chan! What are you doing here? Where's granny?" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes showing surprise as he started berating her with further questions so fast they were incomprehensible. Sakura, feeling her temper flair, hit him over the head as she finally shut him up. Trying to smile, she gritted her teeth slightly before responding with a shaky voice.

"She is currently busy doing paperwork. She sent me here to practice before she teached me a new skill." Sakura mentally wished she could escape now. While she loved Naruto, he could be quite nosy.

Naruto, seeming to recover from her hit, suddenly seemed to magically get back his strength as he started jumping up and down once more. "Hey hey, want to train with me and Sasuke-teme? You can tell me how awesome I am once I beat him black and blue!"

"As if dobe." Sasuke said with a snide, eyes than staring at Sakura as he seemed to look at her up and them before seeming to dismiss her presence.

Sakura gave the boy a fake smile, trying to make it as genuine as possible while at the same time trying to to murder Sasuke with a stick. "No thank you Naruto. The task Tsunade sent me to do is meant to be done alone in a ...quiet environment.." With Naruto around meditating was close to impossible, bringing in Sasuke to the equation and she would have better luck flying to the moon. That and there would be too many questions she didn't feel like answering just yet.

"Maa, Sakura. Aren't you suppose to be accompanied by a mentor or sensei to get into the training grounds though?" Kakashi asked, interfering when he heard her decline. Smiling at him, Sakura showed him the mark on her palm.

"You're forgetting just who my master is Kakashi-sensei. Tsunade has it all under control." With that Sakura turned, full intent on going to the trees and letting their peaceful chakra relax her. Maybe even practice a few theories she had thought about when reading on some accounts over Hashirama Senju's won jutsu.

"Well then see during tomorrow's training Sakura-chan!" She could still feel Kakashi's stare at her back when she left. She knew that while Sasuke and Naruto had not known about her little hospital visit, Kakashi had been informed. Him being her sensei, he needed to be told of such matters. Yet she had managed to keep Tsunade from telling him about Shisui and Itachi, promising she would do so soon. She needed to get stronger, to fully use the skills they would soon teach her. Then and only then will she tell everyone. She had decided to tell them on the Chunin exams. If she was not ready then, then she would never truly be ready to face her team about such things

Sighing, the pinkette rubbed her forehead, feeling a migraine forming. She quickened her pace as she came inside the training grounds she self-claimed as her own. Breathing in, she felt the tree's leaves shift slightly at the blow of the wind. Her chakra automatically left her body to make its home around the grass that surrounded her.

The small chakra signatures comforted her slightly as Sakura smiled. "Okay, let's do this." She whispered to herself, steeling herself as she sat down on the ground, crossing her legs. Closing her eyes, she let her breath leave her in controlled puffs as she sent her chakra into the trees around her. Like always, once her chakra was concentrated on more than one tree they fought in a game of tug and war.

She felt her headache come back, yet she tried her best to ignore it as she tried to bring down the chaotic presence of so many natural chakra resources. She tried persuading the trees to come down, to work together rather than fighting against each other for her attention. The trees payed no mind to the fruitless persuasion, instead they continued to pull at her chakra causing her senses to over-ride. It felt as if she was in more than one place at the time, as if her consciousness would soon be ripped apart and taken into every tree she had her chakra surround.

Just as she felt she was about to go mad, she felt a force bring something akin to a wall inside her mind as the tree's tug of war was blocked from her consciousness. Taking hold of this opportunity, she quickly brought back her chakra as she no longer had it wrapped around the possessive trees.

' _ **Well that was idiotic of you, good thing you have me or else you would have gone mad.'**_ Sakura sighed as she thanked Inner, still trying to piece her mind back together. Seems like trying to persuade the trees wasn't going to work, in other words she had to find a different way to bring them under control.

' _ **Might advice in trying on less trees dear Saku-chan and going up from there, maybe then you will have a better chance of bringing your consciousness back. I ain't always going to be able to save your ass in times like these.'**_ Sakura sighed, seeing her Inner's point.

' _Promise I won't be as careless next time.'_ Her inner consciousness seemed happy by her promise, now staring towards the trees with a contemplative look on her face.

' _ **Try sharpening your chakra control first, maybe that can help.'**_

' _What do you think I should do? I more or less mastered tree climbing.'_

' _ **I was thinking water walking, you have that scroll right?'**_

Sakura went to the bag she left in the tree close to the clearing. Digging inside she took out the scroll she recently took out from the library. It was a scroll about chakra manipulation and control. Inside the large amount of information about chakra and its uses, towards the end it held an explanation about how water walking worked.

' _This will be quite difficult without a teacher though…'_

' _ **May I remind you that you are a medic? If you take long on this Tsunade-shishou will throttle you.'**_

' _Point taken.'_

' _ **There is a river in the training ground on the right, we'll start there. Shallow, easy, no immediate danger.'**_

Nodding her head, Sakura grabbed her bag quickly as she made her way through her training ground, heading towards where the stream was located in. She smiled happily, feeling her chakra brush lightly on the different plantation around her. While she didn't get as much information as she would if her chakra was fully wrapped around the trees and plants, she did get small pieces information here and there.

She suddenly heard the soft sound of a river nearby, quickly heading to it she sighed happily at the sight of the small water source.

' _Okay, let's do this.'_ Stopping at the edge, she looked around cautiously. She let her chakra brushed farther in the tree line, trying to feel any hint or flash that would warn her of any shinobi nearby. Happy to see that there was none, she brought back her chakra. She had still not mastered her chakra fully, that being said she would not be able to perform water walking while having some of her chakra concentrated on the plantation nearby.

She took off her shinobi sandals, then her kimono shirt, shivering slightly at the breeze that hit her exposed skin. Breathing in, she felt her chakra deep in her core as she grabbed hold of it for all it was worth. She automatically concentrated the chakra on her feet, just like she did for the tree walking exercise. Remembering everything she had read in the scroll, Sakura put one foot into the water.

The foot quickly started to sink. Furrowing her eyebrows, Sakura took her foot away from the stream as she kneeled into the edge. She pushed chakra into her hands, then brought the hand down into the river. Her hand stayed in the top, even as she pressed against the water. She looked at how chakra moved in her hand. It seemed like the chakra made a sort of hardened force in the water, making it seem like the water was solid.

The water moved around under her, all she needed to do was stabilize her chakra and change her chakra movements to push against the movements of the river, in that way she made it possible to walk on water as if it were a solid surface. The more the water moved under her, the more her chakra had to shift to keep the water under her feet controlled and be strong enough to support her.

Filing all of this inside her mind, Sakura stood up with new found determination in her mind. She could do this, now that she knew the theory behind it she would be able to utilise this skill. Breathing in, chakra once more formed under her foot. She needed to start with a small amount, and then gradually increase the amount until her foot was afloat and on a solid surface in a sense. Seeing her foot sink, she increased the chakra until it was afloat. She checked the strength it held on her water, putting pressure under her foot.

Seeing she was not sinking, she carefully put the same amount of chakra on her other foot. At first she almost lost her balance, the pressure of having to concentrate on two foots and making sure both shifted its chakra to stay afloat almost causing her to fall. She steeled herself, making sure to keep shifting her chakra as she took another step forward. This time a small wave from the stream hit under her foot as Sakura lost control and found herself under water.

Sputtering, Sakura swam to the surface as she gasped and coughed. Groaning, Sakura swam to land as she pulled herself to the ground as she sighed. Well, she was not getting this in her first try this time it seemed. Great.

She tried a few more times, finding herself making friends with the fished each time. Finally, after countless failed attempts, Sakura stood afloat in the the edge of the stream as she concentrated on the steady flow of chakra under her feet. She stayed afloat, her chakra making a sort of floor under her feet to keep her afloat.

She took a tentative step forward, biting her lip as she made sure to keep her chakra stabilized and strong against the slight current. This time, she didn't wobble as much as she usually did. Smiling, Sakura made a few cautious baby steps. Seeing as that she was not underwater yet, Sakura took this as a sign that she was okay as she took normal steps.

A giggle escaped her mouth as she started to stroll around the river. She threw caution to the wild as she started to jump, prance, and then run around like a mad woman. She found herself underwater a few more times in her effort, but all she could do was laugh once in the surface as she merely pushed chakra though her hands and pulled herself up once more, doing the same again and again until she was able to do all of it without sinking once. Slowly but surely, she got used to the flow under her feet until she barely put any mind in the shifting of her chakra as she practically danced around the river.

"Looks like someone is having fun." A shriek escaped the pinkette's mouth as she slipped mid jump and started falling backwards. Chakra released itself from her hold as it practically exploded outside her body, wrapping itself around the grass around the stream and then traveling upwards on the form of the man that had suddenly spoken.

Sakura felt herself become surrounded by water once more. Liquid invaded her respiratory system as her eyes widened before she quickly pushed herself to the top. Too frantic to once more take hold of her disobedient chakra, Sakura pushed herself out of the stream as she coughed and hacked out the horrendous liquid.

Forcing some of her chakra into her hands, a green took form around her hand as she placed it on her lungs. Feeling liquid there, she quickly proceeded to force the liquid upwards until it escaped her mouth.

Coughing the last bit of water out, Sakura fell on her back as she became aware of the man walking closer to her form. Still breathing hard, Sakura slowly turned her head towards the man as she gave him a tired glare.

"The...fuck….?" She spoke through labored breaths, still trying to come out of her near death experience as she tried to clear her blurry vision to see her almost killer.

"Sorry kid, didn't think I would give you such a scare. Though, I would recommend against letting your guard down, especially in the training grounds." The genin could detect a teasing tone in his words, that in turn caused anger to fill her as she sat up, albeit with great difficult. Forcing her blurriness away, Sakura turned to see the soon to be dead man.

He looked to be a jounin, around Kakashi's age if she had to guess. He had shoulder length brown hair with his forehead protector used as some kind of bandanna. He wore the standard jounin uniform and, much to her med-nin side's shock, he had a senbon in his mouth. She forced down all the reprimanding she wished to give him about how _unhygienic_ and _dangerous_ that was. Stupid shinobi with the idiotic fashion sense.

"Who the hell are you?" Sakura cursed Inner Sakura, who had practically forced the words out of her mouth.

' _ **What? We should at least learn the name of the man who almost caused our end.'**_

' _He's a Jounin! Have more respect.'_

' _ **He almost killed us, I think our lack of respect is reasonable.'**_

Deciding that arguing with her stubborn personality was just not worth the effort, Sakura instead took her attention to the currently amused jounin.

"I have a feeling you're the cause of this." Sakura looked at him in confusion, but seeing his gaze going to his feet, Sakura suddenly became aware of her remaining chakra spreading through the grass and some of it making its way around the unknown man.

The young kunoichi cursed. ' _So much for keeping this a secret Sakura.'_

Rubbing the back of her neck, she quickly grabbed an iron hold of her chakra. It took more force than usual, mostly because her chakra could still feel her residue fear of life and wished to comfort her through the plants. Huffing, she forced the last bit of chakra inside of her core, keeping a strong hold of the rebellious energy.

"Interesting, can't say I've seen that before." For a moment Sakura contemplated making a run for it, but decided against it. This man seemed skilled, she couldn't get a foot away before he had her captured.

Suddenly he disappeared, her fear caused her chakra to break free once more as it took place on the life around her. She felt him appear behind her as she tensed. "Name's Genma, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you around kid." He whispered in her ear causing a shudder to run down her spine. She could almost feel the smirk he gave at her reaction before he disappeared again, leaving the pinkette alone in the clearing.

* * *

 **Mevy** : And Genma shows himself at last! Yes! I wanted him to make an appearance soon. His part in this story will be later disclose, but let's just say you have not seen the last of him yet. I confess, he might just be _one_ of my most favorite characters in Naruto….Second only to Itachi and Shisui. I love him, what can I say, and I was anticipating this chapter since chapter 4.

 **Sakura** : Why do I feel like you just made my life more complicated?

 **Mevy** : Oh Sakura, you have no idea…

 **Itachi** : (Glaring at nothing)

 **Shisui** : Agreed cousin, no man should get so close to Blossom. I mean, she doesn't even know him.

 **Mevy** : I don't know wether to be surprised at how well you can understand each other or how easily you get jealous

 **Naruto** : That bastard better stay away from **my** Sakura-chan!

 **Genma** : Never saw your name on her (smirk)

 **Naruto** : (Growling with Kyubi chakra starting to flow out of him)

 **Mevy** : Hahaha, well that's all folks. Now if you don't mind me I'm getting out of here before I'm caught in the crossfire (Escapes through a trap door)


	8. Chapter 8 Show me the way

**Mevy** : **OH LORD JESUS!**

 **Shisui** : (Bursting into the room) What's wrong? Why did you yell out? Where's the fire!?

 **Mevy** : I-uh-me-the-the-the (Pointing at screen in shock)

 **Sakura** : (Peering at the screen curiously) Holy shit! (Staring at Mevy in shock)

 **Itachi** : (Also looking at laptop screen) Hmm, seems like the world has finally lost its mind

 **Sasuke** : I can't believe people read this trash, much less comment on it

 **Mevy** : (Hitting Sasuke atop his head) _**DON'T RUIN THIS FOR ME CHICKEN-BUTT!**_

 **Sasori** : 100 already?

 **Sakura** : I know right? It was a miracle she got even 1 review at all

 **Mevy** : _**YASS BABY! (Salsa dancing with an unwilling Gaara)**_

 **Gaara** : (Whispers) Someone help me….

 **Shisui** : _(Sweatdrop)_ While Mevy finishes doing whatever she's doing, here are the responses to your reviews...

 **Mevy** : _**THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH! 100 REVIEWS!**_

 **Gaara** : (Being squeezed to death in a tight hug) Help me!...

 **Everyone** : (Looking at him with pity)

 **Naruto** : Mevy doesn't own me or my show! (Winces as Mevy starts spinning Gaara around) Poor unfortunate soul, believe it.

Ooo*ooO

 _ **GotNoName123**_ : Haha I'm soo happy that you enjoyed the last chapter. I have to admit, this chapter won't be as eventful as the last, but I hope you still enjoy it ^^ Thank you for your review!

 _ **Shyzuka**_ : No, thank YOU for reading and reviewing the last chapter. I'm really happy that you are enjoying this story so far and I hope you enjoy this new chapter all the same ^^

 _ **Sakura-moonrose-hime**_ : I Apologise for any errors you encountered in the last chapter and this new one as well. I don't have any beta-readers and I will admit that I am not the greatest at proofreading T.T Nevertheless I am so happy you still enjoy the chapters even with my shortcomings and I hope you continue to enjoy this story with its chapters to come

 _ **GinaCat**_ : Haha I apologise for the long wait, school has been hard and summer break had been bombarded with out-of-country trips from programs I joined and studying for the new year to come, so I didn't exactly get the time necessary to proofread this new chapter, still I hope you enjoy this belated chapter!

 _ **Twisted Musalih**_ : I am so ever thankful that you are enjoying this story so far and I hope you enjoy this new chapter just as much. Thank you for reviewing!

 _ **Marisilveirad**_ : I'm so happy you loved the last chapter! Hopefully you like this new chapter as well. Thank you for your review!

 _ **Naomipy**_ : Haha, define soon? I'm sorry for updating quite late, I still hope you stick around even with my hectic schedule. Thank you for reviewing and hope you enjoy this new chapter!

 _ **Nedrag94**_ : Haha this won't be the last time you see that lovable dork, as stated before he is one of my most favorite characters, so safe to say he will make more appearances in future chapters to come ^^ Thank you for reviewing and hope you enjoy this new chapter!

 _ **Verowak**_ : Yeah, and quite the trio they make. I will admit that I have been waiting for Genma to make his entrance since chapter three, I just love him and I really thought he would add more to the story, especially partnered with Shisui and Itachi. I'm really happy for the positive feedback over adding him to the mix and I hope you continue to enjoy this story.

 _ **TheGuardianAngel18**_ : I apologise for my belated installment, I have to say school has been slowly killing me from my inside, but because of that I rely on Fanfiction and reviewers like you to keep me going and not be slain by the lectures and never ending homework lol. I really am so happy you enjoy this story so far, and here I serve you the new installment, hopefully you enjoy it ^^

 _ **Azoma J** :_ I'm so sorry for updating so late. Quite overused but school has been quite a pain and I had to take a short break from Fanfiction in order not to fall behind in the neverending work I had been subjected to lol. Hopefully I didn't lose you. I hope you enjoy this new installment and thank you for reviewing.

* * *

 **I want to thank all of you once more for making this possible. I love every single one of you and I hope you guys continue to enjoy this story. THANK YOU FOR BEING SO CARING! Now let the chapter begin~**

* * *

Chapter 8: Show me the way

Sakura gritted her teeth, fist tightening in their position on top of her lap as she concentrated on the tree in front of her. Her chakra was wrapped snuggly around the tree, she could feel even the smallest of insects located in it as the tree showed her every part of itself; like a book ready to be read.

She breathed in as she tentatively stretched her chakra little by little, taking it to the tree next to her current one. She grunted slightly, hissing in slight pain as she felt her chakra become the rope in a game of tug and war once more. These trees individually were quite compliant, but if she gave more than one her attention they started acting like children. Huh, never thought she would ever talk about plantation as if it were _human_.

' _ **Comes to show just how much sanity we have left.'**_

' _Oh shut up.'_

Huffing, Sakura tried to get the trees to behave, her patience slowly thinning as her chakra tried in vain to soothe the rebellious plantation. The reaction was the opposite of what she wanted to happen, the trees became more determined to keep her for themselves as they pulled at her chakra with more force. Sakura hissed again, feeling her head start to hurt as her consciousness jumped from one tree to the other.

Grabbing her chakra with as much strength as she could, she quickly pulled it back towards herself as she let it cover the grass under her. While the same happened with the grass, it was in a lesser degree, one which she could ignore with slight ease.

"Heya Blossom, you're here early." Sakura turned to see the figure of one Shisui Uchiha walking towards her. Smiling, she stood up and proceeded to walk towards the taller male. Sakura let herself be patted in the head as Shisui messed with her pink locks.

"Where's Itachi?" She noticed that the male's cousin was not currently present. Brows furrowing slightly, Sakura looked at Shisui with expectation.

He smiled, his hand still running through her hair as he chuckled. "The idiot got caught up with a fellow team member, we have like 2 weeks off commision so he'll be here soon enough."

As if proving the older Uchiha's point, Itachi suddenly appeared in the clearing in a flurry of crows and black feather. Sakura stared at the male after the quick display in wonderment. While she had been witness to many body-flicker techniques, this one was by far the most showy yet beautiful.

"Always with the big entrance, huh Tachi-kun." Shisui's comment was met with a glare, one which he was all too happy to ignore as he looked down into Sakura's eyes. "Kay blossom, so since we already have the gist of how you use the tree chakra technique, we should probably put off trying it again until we have a better understanding of it. Heck, it was near impossible getting you unattached to the tree. Tachi-chan had to use his chakra to burn the chakra off you while at the same time trying not to harm you too much. Heck, Tsunade-sama almost had our head when she saw the chakra burns on your feet."

Sakura felt herself stop breathing for a moment at his words. Guilt hit her in the gut, surprisingly though, it wasn't just because of the burden she had become in the incident. "Is the tree okay?"

The males looked at the young pinkette, both holding equal expressions of perplexity in their faces. Sakura colored slightly in embarrassment, yet she still continued looking at them shyly, waiting for their response.

"Far as I know, the tree's fine. Never knew you were such a tree huger, Blossom." Sakura mumbled something incoherent at the slight tease, looking down at her feet in embarrassment. Shisui chuckled slightly at the cuteness of the act as he shook his head in amusement.

"Anyways, do you have any other technique you can do?" Sakura was about to shake her head in denial, that was until something came to mind. Gulping slightly, she nodded her head as the males looked at her expectantly.

"I can sometimes control the movement of small plantation, things like slightly spiking the grass or making a leaf come to me. I can also sense my surroundings using trees, kinda like how I can make my chakra travel to you guys using the plantation under you."

Both Itachi and Shisui looked deep in thought at her confession. Shisui furrowed his eyebrows as he walked directly in front of her. "Okay, we want to see this. Can you spike up the grass now?" Nodding her head, Sakura closed her eyes as she tried her best to concentrate in the given task. Her chakra was already covering the grass around her, the small plant life welcoming the warm energy as if it were its own.

Gritting her teeth slightly, Sakura pushed her chakra into a patch in front of her as she forced the chakra to travel upwards once it covered the pieces of plantation fully. It drained her chakra slightly, but the result was positive as the chakra induced grass spiked up with the chakra movement. Letting the grass go, she let her chakra run over it naturally once more as she huffed in slight tiredness after the little exertion. It seems she is not quite in the level where a small task such as this would cause her no effort.

She looked to see Itachi crouching in front of the patch of grass she had controlled. His hand glowed faint blue from chakra as he hovered his palm over the grass. "What are you doing Itachi-sensei?" Sakura asked the quiet Uchiha. He seemed to not put her question any mind as he touched the grass with a glowing blue finger.

The grass automatically bristled, burning under his chakra as Sakura gasped at the display. "Your chakra has some sort of special quality that makes it not harmful to plants when touching them. Usually, shinobi chakra being forced inside plantation would cause negative affects to the plant's life, seeing as that -usually- our chakra is specifically made to destroy. That being said, it is rare to find someone with the ability to force raw chakra into plant life without causing it to be harmed or die, even more so to have the ability to control it. The closest example to this would be the first Hokage, but even he had to grow his own trees, he couldn't control trees that he himself hadn't created with his own chakra."

Sakura felt confusion at the thought, she knew chakra is naturally harmful, being a medical ninja she needed to be able to stabilize the harmful energy and have enough control to not poison her patient with the chakra. Yet. she never truly thought about what that would mean to the plant life she now always seem to bombard with chakra (even when she didn't particularly want to). She had also known about the First Hokage, but again she had not truly put any thought about the fact that he couldn't control any plants that he himself had grown. Yet, now that she thought back to it, all texts about him and his techniques say that he had to use his chakra combined with seeds in order to grow and control trees, nowhere did it ever say that he was able to control plants or trees that he himself had not grown.

Her thoughts though, were interrupted as she gasped at the sight before her. The grass, once completely brown and half dead, suddenly started to slowly become green once more- as if it were healing itself. "Huh, you noticed too. While you were out of commision I saw that some of your chakra always seemed to stay in plantation when coming in contact with it for long periods of time or when you cover it with a good portion of chakra. 'Tachi was the one who found that your dormant chakra would heal it when they got hurt."

As Shisui finished his explanation, the grass stopped becoming greener, though the color (while more healthy) was still slightly yellow around the edges.

"Seems like it ran out of chakra. Hmm, Blossom I've been wondering; are you able to heal plantation with your healing chakra? Maybe if you _want_ the plant to heal the process would take less time than simply letting raw chakra heal it automatically. That being said, it might even take less chakra."

Thinking about it carefully, Sakura tilted her head as she slightly nodded towards Shisui. Looking at Itachi, she saw that he had a thoughtful look on his face. He had said nothing throughout the whole exchange though. She wondered what was going through his head, but knew better than to ask as she walked over to the still slightly harmed grass.

' _Okay, how are we going to do this'_ Inner Sakura seemed to scrunch up her eyebrows as she put on a thinking face.

' _ **Medical ninjutsu?'**_

' _You think? I don't know...It's a ninjutsu type specifically designed to help_ humans _not plant life.'_

' _ **Doesn't hurt to try.'**_

Sighing, Sakura agreed with her inner voice as she looked at the still half-dead grass in front of her. Crouching to be in closer proximity to the plantation, Sakura breathed out slowly as she made a few hand seals to activate her medical chakra. Green colored chakra covered her hands as she touched the grass. Frowning, Sakura found that she did not gain the usual feedback she got from plantation when she did this. Pushing her chakra into the plants, her eyes widened when the grass seemed to reject her chakra. Pushing it further, she quickly stopped when the grass seemed to sag and discolor ever so slightly.

Stopping the chakra flow from her hand, Sakura tentatively touched the slightly dead grass gently as she frowned. "It seems like medical chakra is poisonous for plants." Caressing the smooth body of the small plants, Sakura mentally apologized, much to her inner's amusement.

"Hmm, it could be because it is a more concentrated form of your chakra. You only ever push in raw chakra right?" Nodding her head at Shisui, Sakura turned to see Itachi staring at her intensely.

"We will worry about this later today, for now I want you to give us a full report of what you have been training on so far." Nodding her head, Sakura thought back to the past few weeks.

"I refined my accuracy for some weeks, currently I have about 91% accuracy with Kunai, 87% accuracy with senbon, 89% accuracy with shuriken and around 80% accuracy with other small projectiles such as throwing knives. I have done some physical training to raise the physical aspect of my chakra such as laps around the village -thought I can only go half way right now- and other exercises. I have also taken to meditating quite a bit."

Nodding his head, Shisui gave Sakura a small pitying smile as he looked at Itachi from the corner of his eyes. The younger Uchiha seemed to be in deep thought, most likely already building a training manual in his head.

The poor, poor girl. She doesn't know what she has gotten herself into.

Ooo*ooO

"Itachi please! Call off the birds!" Sakura screamed out as she avoided another crow from pecking her in the head. She wanted to cry, but such action would blur her vision, which would most likely result in one of her eyes being pecked out.

Sakura was currently running the perimeter around the wall, her task? Making a full lap around the wall was her current objective. But that was not it, oh no, that would be far too easy. Itachi, wishing for her to have something that would...encourage her as well as lessen the risk of her taking a break halfway through, had summoned a group of crows to track her and -in a sense- make sure she pushing past her usual running limits.

In other words, Sakura was currently dying in her feet and most likely missing numerous sets of brain cells she will never get back. Great, her brain was the only thing she could boast about and these - _stupidstupistupid horrendous-_ birds were taking even that away from her.

' _ **Run faster goddamnit!'**_ Inner Sakura yelled out as she felt the world around her shake once more as another avian creature pecked the top of her head (none too gently mind you).

Frowning, Sakura sneered inwardly as she screamed back to her Inner. ' _I'm running as fast as I can!'_ She admitted, she wasn't the fastest Kunoichi that ever was, but right now she was sure she beat all the average running speeds she had gotten at the academy. Her chest was hurting, her throat was parched, and her legs felt as if they were on fire. Chakra was constantly going through them, taking as much of the pain away as it could while at the same time giving her a bit of a physical boost.

Seeing the village gates once more in her view, Sakura felt more chakra pump into her muscles as she rushed towards the location of the gates and promptly collapsed once she came close to Itachi and Shisui's waiting forms.

"4 hours and 45 minutes, not bad blossom. But…" Sakura felt arms grab her sides as Shisui stood her up, ignoring the fact that she was currently soaked to the bone with sweat. "Not great either, also we noticed when you were coming back that you were constantly administering chakra into your muscles to increase movement...You will stop doing that in our next meeting."

Sakura stared at him in disbelief. He wanted her to run the whole way across the village without chakra? Was Shisui truly insane!?

"Now don't look at me like that Blossom, your natural speed or physical capacity will never increase if you keep relying on chakra so much. It would not only help you in your physical capabilities, though, it will also help you in controlling your chakra movement. I hear that, while incredibly rare, if a medic ever truly masters the art of moving her chakra she will be able to heal herself without hand signs or contact."

Nodding in understanding, Sakura smiled. "I accept the challenge Shisui-sensei." Grinning in response, Shisui ruffled her wet and slightly dirty hair only to slightly wrinkle his nose afterwards. "Well someone needs a shower." Sakura blushed, face going red as she continued moving around slightly to keep her muscles from cramping. She was tred, hungry, and now that she noticed, incredibly dirty.

Itachi walked next to her, in his hands he was holding a towel and a large white shirt. Smiling at his in thanks, Sakura rubbed her face with the towel and proceeded to take off her shirt. Sadly it seemed that her undershirt was equally a wet with sweat, if not even more wet. Putting on the shirt, Sakura proceeded to then take off her undershirt from under the larger white shirt, leaving only her chest binds along with the oversized shirt. Looking down at her equally sweaty shorts, Sakura sighed but didn't bother with them, the material was not one that got as wet anyways.

She then turned her head towards Shisui and Itachi. only to find them looking at her weirdly. Itachi held a sort of amused yet taken aback expression while Shisui was almost gawking at her.

"Y-you know we were going to let you change somewhere more...private right?"

Her actions coming back to her, Sakura blushed a bright red as she laughed nervously. "G-guess it's a force of habit." Shisui stared at her flatly.

"You change in front of your teammates?" Nodding her head pensively, Sakura tilted her head slightly as she bit her lip. "Well, out in the field during missions we don't really have all that much room for privacy, especially seeing as that we all share a tent for convenience, or most of the time just sleep outdoors as is. That and when I was less experienced in the art of healing and had an injury somewhere unreachable like my back I would have either Kakashi or Naruto treat me, so that didn't leave much room for conservative views."

Shisui accepted her answer, yet was a bit perturbed by the realization. He knew that teams usually had to go through that, them being shinobi made it so that privacy was laughable and you would usually see bits and parts of the opposite gender for the first time through your teammates, especially those closer teams who tended to...spend intimate time together in hot springs or general rivers. It was not uncommon, just hard to believe that Team Seven was that close even with all the barriers surrounding them.

"How are your chakra levels?" Itachi cut in, having not contributed anything to the bit of information the little blossom had shared with them. Sakura frowned, looking inside of her as she checked the amount of chakra she had left.

"A little below 50%" She then responded. Nodding, Itachi hummed as he turned towards the direction back to the training ground.

"Me and Shisui will start with a common but useful earth-style jutsu. It is only a supplementary technique, but it can get you out of some sticky situations. But before that, we have to teach you a certain technique to make it all the more effective."

Sakura's eyes lit up at that. Almost jumping in happiness, she walked beside the two as a grin formed on her lips. They walked in a leisured pace towards the training grounds, her current physical state making any fast pace an impossibility without fainting half way. Seems like both Uchihas were right, she really needed to increase her physical state.

Once they made it to the field, both Shisui and Itachi turned to her as Shisui promptly took the initiative. "Okay Blossom, we will first be teaching you the art of chakra cloaking."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprised. She had read of the technique, it was mainly used by older shinobi who tended to go to more undercover missions. It was a B level technique that required great chakra control.

"This technique is mainly taught to jounin or sometimes chunin with good chakra control. It is rare, but there are occasions in which genin are able to pick it up, thought genin rarely take missions that would ever require them to know how to cloak their chakra."

Sakura nodded, already knowing some of the basics of it. Shisui smirked, eyes shining as he gave Itachi a look. The male nodded, breath leaving his lips in a small sigh as the older Uchiha just smirked wider.

"Okay Blossom, I want you to pay close attention to my chakra." Sakura nodded, eyes concentrating at the male as she sensed the general feeling of his chakra in the air. While she wasn't much of a sensor ninja, her chakra control made it possible for her to slightly sense the slight chakra leaking form shinobi. Her eyes widened in shock, staring at Shisui with an opened mouth. Right in front of her, Shisui let out a massive amount of chakra. It was quite big, the only other times she had felt such high amounts of chakra was when Kakashi fought higher level shinobi in Team 7's usual missions gone wrong.

"Most shinobi -Jounin level and higher- tend to cloak their chakra while in the village. While genin might not be as sensitive to chakra as older shinobi, high chakra levels could disturb them. Civilians also tend to become overwhelmed if too many high chakra signatures bombarded them from all over." As Itachi said this, Shisui's levels started to lower until they become his usual barely-there levels. Then, much to her inner surprise, they continued to shrink until they were close to that of a squirrel. His chakra signature then shrank to the point that if she didn't know what she was looking for, or if she wasn't seeing him right in front of her, she might just have overlooked him, not feeling anything at all.

"This is effective on infiltration missions, or assassination missions. It would also help in scouting, but using jutsu while cloaking your chakra is almost impossible. That act would require a large amount of chakra control and practice. There is also the fact that keeping your chakra cloaked for a time takes quite a bit of effort, it will again require you to have high chakra control and practice."

Nodding her head quickly, Sakura felt excitement fill her as Shisui's signature grin returned. "First though, you might want to begin with getting all your chakra inside of you blossom." Shisui chuckled lightly, looking at the ground around her. Sakura frowned, but then she saw, or rather, felt what he was talking about. Her chakra had gotten out of her reserves in her moment of weakness, taking refuge in the grass around her like a stubborn mule. Huffing, she forcefully shoved her chakra back inside of her, Though, she bit her lip as her reserves protested. It seems like while her chakra had resided outside of her, her reserves had already filled partially, causing there to be extra chakra in her coils. It hurt, but she did her best not to show her discomfort as she pulled her chakra into a ball and gave it to Inner.

' _ **This is really starting to become tedious.'**_ Her inner grumbled, she could see her frowning in irritation as she started to ease the chakra out of her body and into the environment around her.

' _Not my fault my chakra is a pain in the as_ s.' Sakura complained, making sure none of her chakra escaped her grasp as she met the Uchiha cousins' amused stares. Glaring, Sakura felt her cheeks burn as she lowered her gaze.

"Wow blossom, if I didn't know any better I would think that your chakra had a mind of its own," Sakura only squirmed, blush now reaching her ears as she decided to turn her face away from them. She heard a small chuckle, but it wasn't Shisui's usual sound of mirth. Head turning back to them, she was met with the surprising sight of Itachi chuckling lightly against his hand. Sakura's face flushed, eyes widening into plates as the usually expressionless Uchiha was chuckling like any other human being.

Shisui was having the same experience. He only ever saw his cousin show happiness in form of smiling or laughing with Sasuke or with himself when they were alone. Yet this was the second time already that he had outwardly expressed his amusement because of Sakura. Turning to the young pinkette, Shisui looked at her a whole new way. They hadn't noticed at first, but for some reason both of them had gotten quite attached to the young genin in the small amount of time they had been with her. It's still a barely there fledgling bond, but Shisui, being one of the few Uchiha's not being born with crippled emotions, could already see this bond would grow and evolve as time passed.

He kept his mouth shut though, and merely smiled at his cousin while trying to hold back his own laughter at Sakura's flabbergasted expression. He would say nothing, for he knew how Itachi would react if he believed he was starting to get too attached.

His cousin needed something to stable him, to keep him grounded and away from becoming the usual Anbu killing machine. He needed something other than Shisui and Sasuke that would keep him _human._ There was no sign that he was going into a relationship anytime soon- Izumi had been a hopeful light to Shisui, but even after all these years Itachi never seemed to hold the same sentiments that she held for him- and so if his cousin could find another bond in the form of a pink haired beginner medic, well, who was Shisui to look into a gift horse's mouth.

So, Shisui grinned as usual as he began to speak before Sakura said anything that might compromise the situation. "So, now that you have that pesky chakra under control, why don't we go to the next step." Sakura was still looking at Itachi questionable, if not curiously, but she merely nodded as a frown formed on her brow.

Itachi seemed to have gotten a hold of himself, but Shisui could see the barely there embarrassment on his face as well as the lessening of stiffness on his shoulders. He was relaxing, no longer as on guard. Shisui felt his heart lighten at that realization, it was a slow process, but it will work soon enough.

"Okay then, the process of how to do it is a bit difficult to explain. In the end, the tip usually given is to grab an inner tight hold of your chakra to the point that it feels as if you are squeezing it tightly. Once that is done, put a sort of imaginary cloak over it and tighten your hold further until it seem as if it's barely there. This is the reason why it seems like a difficult technique that takes quite a bit of control, you have to be able to get a tight enough hold of your reserves in order to keep your chakra from leaking out. If even a bit leaks out, your position would be compromised."

Sakura nodded her head, eyes closing as she felt the chakra inside of her. She already had a hold on it, as per usual ever since it started leaving her body to the plants around her. She tried tightening her hold, but the chakra only seemed to slip through her tight inner hold, like gripping jelly. Her chakra almost escaped her hold and left her body once more, but Sakura bit her lip as she managed to scoop the disobedient chakra back into her hold. She held it in a more looser hold in order to grab it all.

She frowned, how was she going to keep it from slipping out of her hold?

Eyes narrowing, Sakura once more tighten her hold on the chakra inside of her, gripping it tightly only to have it trickle out of her hold once more. Growling, Sakura once more scooped the leaking chakra as she tried to keep it from leaving her hold. What was she suppose to do?

But then she remembered what Shisui told her. Make it seem like you are putting a cloak over it…

Maybe the cloak didn't only serve to disguise her chakra, but also take hold of all of it in order to keep it from leaking out of her hold? Like a blanket, she would be able to wrap her chakra tightly around it and make squeezing it to a smaller ball easier.

Fist clenching, Sakura tried to imagine a blanket in her hold. She came up blank.

' _ **You are starting to make me pity you, here let me help.**_ **'** Smiling, Sakura nodded her head as she felt her Inner consciousness join her to her chakra reserve.

' _ **Imagine a blanket and then hand it over to me.'**_ Sakura felt confusion at Inner's remark, but decided not to question her inner personality as she tried to imagine a blanket in her subconsciousness. This time, with a bit of Inner's help, she managed to accomplish the task. She could see Inner smiling as she took the imaginary blanket into her hold. A frown also forming on her face, Sakura could see her wrap the blanket around her bustling chakra with effort, her frown becoming more prominent from the effort as she managed to wrap the blanket over the chakra Sakura still had a hold of.

' _ **See, two minds work better than one.'**_ Inner exclaimed in triumph, yet Sakura could hear that her voice was slightly strained from the effort of the task

she had done. Mentally giving her Inner a hug, Sakura smiled in thankfulness.

 _'Thank you inner, you saved me once again.'_ She could feel the ego of her Inner slightly grow at her remark, a tired smirk on her face as she flipped her black hair lightly. ' _ **Cha!'**_

Smile still in place, Sakura grabbed hold of the now blanketed chakra as she felt inside of her. She could not be sure how much of it was now felt, but the blanket should have at least muted it to the point of that of a small animal rather than a shinobi, if not a civilian. She needed to squeeze it a bit more to get it to the level Shisui had showed her.

So, Sakura tightened her hold on her chakra as she squeezed it smaller and smaller, holding the ball of energy in her mental hands as she continued to decrease its size until she no longer could. She felt strain in keeping it in this form, the constant battle of her chakra making a small headache form on the right side of her brain as she tried to ignore the small sting of her eyes from the pressure. This must be what Shisui had talked about when he said it would be hard to keep control of the chakra.

Nevertheless, Sakura kept a tight hold on her mued energy, not letting a trickle out even as her eyes continued to burn and her head ached all the more.

She opened her eyes to see Shisui looking at her impressed, a surprised smile forming on his lips. Itachi gave her a look that was between curious and taken-a-back, his lips perfectly neutral.

"Damn Blossom, you were able to master that technique faster than both me and Itachi. Medical ninja's chakra control really is something huh." Shisui praised her happily, walking over to where she was standing as he dropped a hand over her shoulders. "Though it looks like it really is putting a strain on you." His words rang true, Sakura could feel her eyes water slightly from the constant burn as her head continued to ache. Her chakra was fighting against its restraints, its muted hums becoming more violent as it looked to once more be freed from her constraining hold.

"Chakra is a tricky force, one that is free and destructive. Keeping it contain can put a strain on you, but the more you do it, the more you will learn to control its violent nature and keep it calm when restraint. I would recommend to restrain it little by little. While your feat of constraining it to almost non-existence is quite remarkable, doing it right out will put a strain on your coils and mind that is not quite worth it. You know, dip your toe first instead of jumping right into the freezing water."

Sakura nodded, still new to the process of taking something one step at the time. Kakashi was more of the do-it-the-best-you-can-and-don't-stop-until-you-succeed. Much like the time with the tree exercise, Kakashi would show you something and then let you figure out how to do it. He did the opposite of what Shisui said, being the one who would forcefully plunge you into the cold water and make you become used to it.

"Thank you Shisui." As she said this, Sakura let her chakra go as it seemed to trample through her now open gates. Wincing slightly, Sakura put up no fight as some of it leaked out of her body and into the grass around her.

"Sakura…" Sakura turned to him, slightly surprised that he had called out her given name with no honorific but faintly happy from the act. "You said you are able to pick up the location of shinobi using that technique with your chakra, right?" At his inquiry, Sakura frowned as she thought back. She had used it to pick up the location of those bandits from back then, and the trees tended to give her directions of any threats that might be of close proximity.

"Yes, the only time I did it was when I was able to sense some bandits that tried to attack my team. The trees they were hiding on told me their location." Suddenly a shiver ran across Sakura's back, she felt a sort of malevolent feeling fill her chest as her breathing picked up. Her eyes widened, she felt sick to her stomach as red colored her vision. Looking around her, she felt the world spin as a sick sense of resolve filled her insides.

"Sakura?" She heard Shisui question, voice slightly panicked as Sakura felt her vision blur. Feeling of despair, _disgust, anger, sadness, resolution, she didn't want them, didn't want them didn't didn't didn't._

Suddenly she felt those feelings leave her, her eyes no longer saw red and her breathing started to calm.

' _ **It's okay.'**_ She heard Inner humm in her head, invisible hands enveloped her as Sakura felt everything inside of her calm. ' _ **You're okay.'**_ And like that, Sakura no longer remembered what she was panicking about.

She blinked, feeling arms around her as she turned and saw Itachi holding her against him. His eyes showed a bit of worry and cation in them, as if she was about to kneel over any minute.

"Sakura, are you okay?" She then noticed that Shisui was in front of her, crouching so that he was face level with her. "I-I'm sorry. I have no idea what came over me." Sakura felt her voice shake ever so slightly, she felt goosebumps form up her arm as she rubbed them slightly.

"You were having a panic attack." Itachi deadpan, voice questioning if not slightly accusing. Sakura frowned, panic attack?

' _Inner, what are they talking about.'_ For a moment her Inner was surprisingly quiet. Sakura frowned, worried for a moment. Then the familiar voice filled her subconscious and she felt herself involuntarily relax.

' _ **It's nothing. You just had a scare because of the attack. Everything is fine.'**_ Sakura felt slightly put-off by her claim. Yet she said nothing, instead turning back to the two Uchihas as she smiled the best she could.

"It's really nothing. Now why did you want to know if I could sense people." Itachi did not look convinced, but Shisui, knowing they would get nowhere by questioning her, instead smiled his usual boyish smile as he took her from Itachi's embrace with a twirl.

"We're going to play Shinobi hide-and-seek to test your sensory skills. In that way, you will be able to practice both your sensory skills and your chakra cloaking technique." Sakura couldn't help but laugh at this. First Kakashi surprising her with climbing trees as training, now here was Shisui, a top ranking shinobi, recommending a kid's game. Leaf shinobi truly were one of a kind.

"Sakura's it." With that the two Uchiha disappeared, leaving Sakura alone in the field. Sakura huffed, but smiled as she let her chakra free.

Yet, unbeknownst to her, Inner frowned inside of her mind as she locked the cabinet in front of her. Sighing, she looked at the cracks that had formed as she shook her head. That had been a close one.

Ooo*ooO

 **Mevy** : Ugh this chapter took longer to think up than the last ones, I still feel like it's slightly unsatisfactory T.T

 **Sakura** : We're back!

 **Mevy** : How's Gaara?

 **Shisui** : The doctor said he won't have any lasting injuries, though his mental state might become worse than before

 **Sasuke** : It will be a miracle if he doesn't put a restraint order on you (Sigh)

 **Mevy** : Gaara-chan loves me too much to ever do that to me!

 **Everyone** : (Facepalm)

 **Shikamaru** : Troublesome woman

 **Temari** : I found someone much more terrifying than berserk Gaara...

 **Kankuro** : Ditto (Shaking head)

 **Mevy** : Oh yall know you love me

 **Everyone** : (Deadpan)

 **Mevy** : Huff, buncha meanies. (Pout) Anywayz that's all for today. Now if you don't mind me I'm going to visit Panda-chan at the hospital (Hearts in eyes) **Wait for me Panda-chan! I'm on my way!** (Runs towards hospital)

 **Itachi and Sasori** : (Sigh) We'll make sure she doesn't kill him (Leave as well)

 **Sakura** : Thank you everyone for your continued support and for helping this story reach 100 reviews! We will forever be grateful

 **Naruto** : Hey teme, aren't you scared over the fact that you could have been in Gaara's shoes, ya know seeing as that Mevy went through a Sasuke crazy faze before

 **Sakura** : Oh yeah, then she switched to Akatsuki, most specifically Itachi and Sasori

 **Sasuke** : I think I would rather have her hate me than be crazy over me (Shiver)

 **Shikamaru** : I feel sorry for whoever is next on her list of characters she 'loves'

 **Everyone** : (Shiver)

 **Genma** : All we can do is pray we're not next

 **Everyone** : (Nod solemnly in agreement)

Goodbye everyone~


End file.
